Boeing accepts plea deal to avoid criminal trial over crashes

Boeing will plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the US government stemming from two plane crashes of its 737 MAX jetliners that killed 346 people and will pay $487.2 million in fines, the Justice Department said.

The planemaker confirmed it had reached a deal with the department in a court filing on Sunday evening and had no further comment.

Federal prosecutors alleged Boeing committed conspiracy to defraud the government by misleading regulators about a flight control system that was implicated in the crashes, which occurred in Indonesia in October 2018 and in Ethiopia less than five months later.

Companies with felony convictions can be suspended or barred as US defense contractors. The company was awarded Defense Department contracts last year valued at $22.8 billion, nearly 40 percent of its revenue, according to federal data.

In addition to the $487.2 million in fines — the maximum allowed by law — Boeing agreed to invest at least $455 million over the next three years to strengthen its compliance and safety programs.

The agreement also requires Boeing's board of directors to meet with families of the crashes, who were briefed a week ago on the outlines of the deal.

They oppose the deal and want Boeing to pay $24.8 billion, the Justice Department said.

"The families are highly disappointed that the DOJ fails to account for the two crashes," Robert Clifford, lead counsel for families in the civil litigation pending in US District Court in Chicago, said in a statement to China Daily on Monday.

"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. This plea agreement only furthers that skewed corporate objective."

Paul Cassell, a lawyer for more than a dozen of the families, told The New York Times that they had sought an admission of fault in the deaths of those killed in the crashes and had hoped for stiffer consequences for the company and its executives, including a trial.

In the latest incident in a string of safety scares for the company, a United Airlines Boeing jet taking off from Los Angeles lost a wheel on Monday and later landed safely in Denver, its intended destination, the airline said.

Agencies contributed to this story.