{"id":104478,"date":"2024-12-06T07:03:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T07:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/12\/06\/boeing-plea-deal-tied-to-fatal-crashes-rejected\/"},"modified":"2024-12-06T07:03:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T07:03:07","slug":"boeing-plea-deal-tied-to-fatal-crashes-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/boeing-plea-deal-tied-to-fatal-crashes-rejected\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing plea deal tied to fatal crashes rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Boeing plea deal intended to resolve a case related to two fatal crashes of its planes has been rejected by a US judge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The plane maker agreed with the US government in July to plead guilty to one count of criminal fraud, face independent monitoring, and pay a $243m (\u00a3191m) fine.<\/p>\n

However, Judge Reed O\u2019Connor struck down the agreement on Thursday, saying it undermined the court and that diversity requirements for hiring the monitor were \u201ccontradictory\u201d.<\/p>\n

Family members of the 346 people killed in the crashes welcomed the ruling, describing the plea deal as a \u201cget-out-of-jail-free card for Boeing\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice said it was reviewing the decision. Boeing did not immediately comment.<\/p>\n

In his decision, Judge O\u2019Connor said the government\u2019s previous years of overseeing the firm had \u201cfailed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, the public interest requires the Court to step in,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He said the proposed agreement did not require Boeing to comply with the monitor\u2019s recommendations and gave the company a say in selecting a candidate.<\/p>\n

Those issues had also been raised by some families of those killed on the flights, who had criticised it as a \u201csweetheart\u201d arrangement that did not properly hold the firm to account for the deaths.<\/p>\n

Judge O\u2019Connor also focused on the deal\u2019s requirements that race be considered when hiring the monitor, which he said would undermine confidence in the pick.<\/p>\n

He said he was concerned with the \u201cshifting and contradictory explanations of how the plea agreement\u2019s diversity-and-inclusion provision will\u2026 operate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parties\u2019 DEI efforts only serve to undermine this confidence in the government and Boeing\u2019s ethics and anti-fraud efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ike and Susan Riffel of California, who lost their two sons, Melvin and Bennett, said the judge had done \u201cthe right thing\u201d in rejecting the proposed agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis deal didn\u2019t hold anyone accountable for the deaths of 346 people and did nothing to protect the flying public,\u201d they said in a statement supplied by their lawyer.<\/p>\n

They said they hoped the ruling would pave the way for \u201creal justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

An ongoing crisis<\/strong>
\nBoeing and the Department of Justice have 30 days to develop a new plan in response to the ruling.<\/p>\n

The plane maker has been struggling to emerge from the shadow cast by two, near-identical crashes of its 737 Max planes in 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n

The aerospace giant was plunged back into crisis in January when a door panel on a new Boeing plane operated by Alaska Airlines blew off soon after take-off.<\/p>\n

The incident reignited questions about what Boeing had done to improve its safety and quality record since the accidents, which were tied to the company\u2019s flight control system.<\/p>\n

The door panel malfunction happened shortly before the end of a three-year period of increased monitoring and reporting.<\/p>\n

Boeing had agreed to the monitoring as part of a 2021 plea deal to resolve a charge it had deceived regulators over the flight control system.<\/p>\n

In May, the Department of Justice said Boeing had violated the terms of that agreement, opening up the possibility of prosecution.<\/p>\n

Instead, the two sides struck another deal, angering families who had hoped to see the company brought to trial.<\/p>\n

In the ruling, Judge O\u2019Connor wrote it was \u201cnot clear what all\u201d Boeing had done to breach the 2021 agreement.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he wrote, \u201ctaken as true that Boeing breached the [deal], it is fair to say that the government\u2019s attempt to ensure compliance has failed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Erin Appelbaum, partner at Kreindler & Kreindler, which represents some families of those killed on the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, called Thursday\u2019s ruling an \u201cexcellent decision and a significant victory\u201d for the victims\u2019 families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipate a significant renegotiation of the plea deal that incorporates terms truly commensurate with the gravity of Boeing\u2019s crimes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for the [Department of Justice] to end its lenient treatment of Boeing and demand real accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Boeing plea deal tied to fatal crashes rejected<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Boeing plea deal intended to resolve a case related to two fatal crashes of its planes has been rejected by a US judge. The plane maker agreed with the US government in July to plead guilty to one count of criminal fraud, face independent monitoring, and pay a $243m (\u00a3191m) fine. However, Judge Reed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}