Reports: DOJ to Criminally Charge Boeing, Seeks Plea Agreement

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Facts

• This week, the US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) will charge Boeing with fraud and ask the aviation giant to accept a plea agreement or face trial, sources with knowledge of the developments told Reuters on Sunday.¹
• The charge relates to two Boeing 737 MAX crashes — a Lion Air flight in 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in 2019 — that combined killed 346. Boeing settled those cases in 2021, but last month, federal prosecutors recommended new charges — arguing Boeing violated the initial agreement.²
• According to sources, Boeing will now have until the end of the week to accept the new 'nonnegotiable' plea deal — said to include a $487.2M fine and the imposition of an independent regulator that will audit the company's safety and compliance practices for three years.¹
• Families of the victims of the two crashes, as well as lawyers representing them, were briefed on the proposed plea agreement in a conference call on Sunday, prompting a number of angry responses to the media that described it as a 'sweetheart plea deal.'³
• Paul Cassell, who represents the families of a number of victims, said: 'The memory of 346 innocents killed by Boeing demands more justice than this,' adding that the 'families will strenuously object to this plea deal.' The DOJ and Boeing did not respond to requests for comment.²
• Elsewhere, in a move intended to shore up safety practices, Boeing announced on Monday that it had agreed to purchase sub-contractor Spirit AeroSystems in a $8.3B deal. Under the agreement, Boeing rival Airbus — which also contracts Spirit — will acquire parts of the company for $559M.⁴

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²BBC News, ³Guardian and ⁴Flight Global.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Reuters. The US Department of Justice is taking firm action against Boeing for violating the 2021 agreement. That includes a fine of $487.2M as well as the imposition of an independent monitor for three years to make sure safety failures of this magnitude don't take place again.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Guardian. This is a sweetheart plea deal that fails to acknowledge the fact that 346 people died as a result of Boeing's safety failures. This is shameful and the families of the victims deserve much better than this. The US government has failed to provide responsible regulation here.

Predictions