9h ago

Boeing avoids prosecution in Justice Department deal over crashes

www.bbc.com

Boeing is set to enter into a non-prosecution agreement in the fatal crashes of two 737 Max aircraft that killed hundreds, the US Department of Justice said.

As part of the deal, Boeing will avoid an upcoming fraud trial that could have resulted in the US aviation giant and defence contractor being labelled a felon. The deal includes the company admitting to obstructing federal aviation officials and paying $1.1 billion in fines.

The two crashes, in 2018 and 2019, left 346 people dead.

The government said it had conferred with families of crash victims, and said many either supported or did not oppose the deal. Some families, however, have expressed outrage at the prospect of such a deal.

21 comments

BOEING KILLED JOHN BARNETT

Hopefully other countries realize the danger Boeing presents and stops buying them or allowing them in their airspace.

In my life, we went from corporations not being people, to corporations being people, to corporations being too big to fail, to corporations being flat out above the law.
- Meh, corporations have gotten away with committing crimes for a long time. DuPont knowingly used harmful chemicals in their products for half a century and got a slap on the wrist for their actions.
- You were born in the 1800s?
  
  Nah, then they'd remember the East India Company.
  It just takes enough time to go by that society forgets about this kind of thing and it can rise up from the ashes again.
  The Pinkertons or military being deployed on strikers wasn't all that long ago historically, but long enough that most of us don't feel it could happen now.

What about the whistleblowers that they killed?

Last year, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to criminal fraud in a settlement to avoid trials, but the agreement was rejected by a federal judge who cited concerns that race-based considerations under Biden -era DEI policies would be used in selecting an independent monitor in charge of overseeing Boeing's compliance.
Umm... What?
- Can't let a "colored person" tell them what to do, now...can they? That'd just be "unnatural". /s

346 people cost 1.1 billion dollars. Thanks for clarifying.
- How much would it cost to blow up 346 Boeing 737 before they could fly?
  
  A couple hundred grand maybe? It doesn't take much to make a plane non-airworthy, but after the first two or three you'd definitely have the attention of law enforcement. You'd have to do all of them at once if you wanted to get them all, and that's going to be significantly more expensive.
  
  How much you got? Just empty your pockets there on the table, and we'll see what that gets you.