Boeing reaches a millionaire deal with the federal Justice Department

NY – He Justice announced on Thursday that it has reached an agreement with Boeing under which the airline company will pay $ 2.5 billion to close an investigation into its 737 MAX aircraft accusing it of withholding information from regulators about the design flaw those two accidents caused mortals.

“The tragic accidents on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 exposed fraudulent and deceptive behavior by employees of one of the world’s leading commercial aircraft manufacturers,” acting deputy attorney general said in a statement. David P. Burns of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.

According to the investigation, in 2016, two flight managers discovered “a major change” in the 737 MAX’s flight control system (MCAS) and instead of sharing it with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Boeing “hid the information and” misled the entity, ” which led to the manuals and training materials for the pilots without the data on them.

In October 2018, the Lion Air accident, which fell in the Java Sea with 189 passengers, and in March 2019 the accident with Ethiopian Airlines, which crashed near the city of Bishoftu with 157 passengers, in both cases involving aircraft 737 MAX which, as The investigation showed, fell suddenly due to a technical malfunction in the MCAS that could not be controlled by the pilots.

“Boeing employees chose the path of profit over fairness by withholding material information from the FAA about the operation of their 737 MAX aircraft and attempting to cover up their deception,” Burns said.

The monetary agreement includes a fine of nearly € 244 million for Justice and € 500 million to compensate the families of those killed in the accidents, while € 1,770 million is committed to compensate Boeing’s airlines for the losses caused by the shutdown of the 737 MAX after the second accident.

“This resolution is a serious reminder to all of us of the importance of our obligation of transparency to regulators, and of the consequences our company can have if any of us fail to meet those expectations,” the president said in a note to his employees. and Boeing CEO David Calhoun.

The 737 MAX scandal, Boeing’s flagship, plunged the company into the worst crisis in its history, costing it nearly $ 20 billion due to its global veto and damaging its reputation as it went down. investigations and a long rehabilitation process with international regulators. The FAA gave Boeing the green light on November 18 for the 737 MAX to resume flying with passengers, and a week ago American Airlines made its maiden flight in the US following its recertification, right in the midst of a new crisis, that of the COVID-19. pandemic, which has hit the tourism industry hard due to travel bans.

Boeing, which indicated that the amount of the fine will be reported in the following quarterly results, fell 0.66% in electronic operations after the Wall Street shutdown in response to the news after the day closed with a profit.