Criminal case dismissed against Boeing in the deadly MAX crashes

A federal judge Thursday dismissed the criminal case against Boeing over two deadly crashes involving its 737 MAX airplanes.

Lion Air Flight 610 went down off the coast of Indonesia on October 29, 2018. Just months later, on March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed into a field, shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa. A total of 346 people died.

The Justice Department requested that the criminal case against Boeing be dismissed, and U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor granted the motion, although he voiced skepticism about the move.

O’Connor wrote that it “fails to secure the necessary accountability to ensure the safety of the flying public.”

Family members of some of the crash victims called the DOJ’s move an outright betrayal of justice.

“A lot of the victims’ families feel like there hasn’t been full accountability, because there hasn’t been,” Mark Lindquist, who represented several of the relatives who filed civil lawsuits against Boeing over the crash, said. “Many of the families are concerned that because Boeing was not held accountable in the criminal case, then Boeing isn’t going to make the necessary changes to quality control.”

Boeing will pay $1.1 billion in fines, compensation

As part of an agreement reached between Boeing and the DOJ in May, the company will pay an additional $1.1 billion in fines and compensation for the families of crash victims. Boeing also promised to continue improving its quality and safety systems.

Unlike an earlier agreement, which O’Connor rejected, Boeing will not be under the scrutiny of an “independent monitor.” It will be up to the FAA to provide oversight, though the FAA was widely blamed for failing to prevent the problems at Boeing that led up to the deadly crashes.

That earlier deal, between Boeing and the Justice Department, required Boeing to plead guilty to a fraud charge for deceiving the FAA about flaws with a flight navigation system that was implicated in the deadly crashes. Now, Boeing won’t plead guilty to any criminal charges in the case, and likely never will.

“This was a long, arduous process, and it is now over,” Lindquist said.

Boeing wrote in a statement: “We are committed to honoring the obligations of our agreement with the Department of Justice. We are also committed to continuing the significant efforts we have made as a company to strengthen our safety, quality, and compliance programs.”

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