US judge rejects Boeing's plea deal in a conspiracy case stemming from fatal plane crashes

By DAVID KOENIG
Associated Press

DALLAS — A federal judge on Thursday rejected a deal that would have allowed Boeing to plead guilty to a felony conspiracy charge and pay a fine for misleading U.S. regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed, killing 346 people.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas creates uncertainty around the criminal prosecution of the aerospace giant in connection with the development of its bestselling airline plane. Boeing and the Justice Department could try to negotiate a new plea agreement.

The Justice Department and Boeing did not comment immediately.

Paul Cassell, an attorney for families of passengers who died in the crashes, called the ruling an important victory for the rights of crime victims.

“No longer can federal prosecutors and high-powered defense attorney craft backroom deals and just expect judges to approve them,” Cassell said. “Judge O’Connor has recognized that this was a cozy deal between the government and Boeing that failed to focus on the overriding concerns -- holding Boeing accountable for its deadly crime and ensuring that nothing like this happens again in the future.”

Many relatives of the passengers who died in the crashes, which took place off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart, have spent years pushing for a public trial, the prosecution of former company officials and more severe financial punishment for Boeing.

The deal the judge rejected would have let Boeing plead guilty to defrauding regulators who approved pilot training requirements for the 737 Max nearly a decade ago. Prosecutors did not allege Boeing’s deception played a role in the crashes.

The Justice Department first charged Boeing in January 2021 with defrauding Federal Aviation Administration regulators who approved pilot training requirements for the 737 Max.

The department simultaneously announced it would drop the charge after three years if the company stayed out of trouble and paid a $2.5 billion settlement — mostly money the company would have paid airline customers anyway due to the FAA grounding the 737 Max fleet for 20 months.

Families of the victims were outraged. Judge O’Connor ruled last year that the Justice Department broke a victims-rights law by not telling relatives that it was negotiating with Boeing, but said he had no power to overturn the deal.

The 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement was due to expire when a door plug blew off a 737 Max early this year during an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon. The incident renewed concerns about manufacturing quality at Boeing, and put the company under intense scrutiny.

After determining that Boeing had violated terms of the 2021 settlement, the Justice Department revived its prosecution of the conspiracy charge. That led to new negotiations and the plea deal that Judge O’Connor rejected.

In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to commit fraud for allegedly deceiving the FAA about how much training pilots would need before flying the Max. Boeing had downplayed the significance of a new flight-control system called MCAS.