Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge related to two fatal airplane crashes.
The airplane manufacturer would pay a $243.6 million fine to resolve an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, per a court filing on Sunday, Reuters reported.
The total proposed agreement fine is $487.2 million, but prosecutors are letting Boeing pay only half, giving the company credit for a $243.6 million the Justice Department levied against it in 2021 over a breached settlement, as previously reported by DX.
A federal judge must approve the new proposed deal, which would technically make Boeing a convicted felon for the two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people. The 737 MAX jetliner crashes occurred within a five-month period spanning 2018 and 2019.
“We can confirm that we have reached an agreement in principle on terms of a resolution with the Justice Department, subject to the memorialization and approval of specific terms,” a Boeing spokesperson told The Dallas Express.
In recent years, Boeing and other firms in the airline industry have been scrutinized for prioritizing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives over safety, as previously reported by DX.
Whistleblowers at Boeing have alleged the company has lackluster quality control measures, which led to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation.
“After receiving the report, we quickly reviewed the matter and learned that several people had been violating Company policies by not performing a required test but recording the work as having been completed,” Scott Stocker, head of the 787 program, emailed employees, according to the Associated Press.
“The company voluntarily informed us in April that it may not have completed required inspections to confirm adequate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage on certain 787 Dreamliner airplanes,” the FAA said, per AP. “The FAA is investigating whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records.”
Robert A. Clifford, a lawyer for some of the plane crash victims’ families, said his clients were “highly disappointed that the DOJ fails to account for the two crashes.”
“Much more evidence has been presented over the last five years that demonstrates that the culture of Boeing putting profits over safety hasn’t changed,” Clifford added, per Fox Business. “This plea agreement only furthers that skewed corporate objective.”
The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee issued a report in 2020 that determined Boeing had systemic failures that led to the two crashes, as previously reported by DX.