Boeing nears deal to avoid guilty plea, prosecution in 737 MAX crashes case

New York/Washington: Boeing has reached a tentative nonprosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice in a fraud case stemming from two fatal 737 MAX plane crashes that killed 346 people, people familiar with the matter said.

The agreement would forestall a June 23 trial date the planemaker faces on a charge it misled US regulators about a crucial flight control system on the 737 MAX, its strongest-selling jet. It would require a judge's approval.

The agreement, if approved, would allow Boeing to avoid being branded a convicted felon as a result of two fatal plane crashes spanning 2018 and 2019. Such a deal would be a blow to families who lost relatives in the crashes and had pressed prosecutors to take the U.S. planemaker to trial.

Boeing has no longer agreed to plead guilty in the case, prosecutors told family members of crash victims during a Friday meeting, the sources said. The company's posture changed after a judge rejected a previous plea agreement in December, prosecutors told the family members.

DOJ officials are still weighing whether to proceed with a nonprosecution agreement or take Boeing to trial, a DOJ official said during the meeting. No final decision has been made, and Boeing and DOJ officials have not yet exchanged papers to negotiate final details of any nonprosecution agreement, the official told family members.

Boeing had no immediate comment while DOJ declined to comment.

Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, said in a statement the government was intent on dropping the prosecution, saying "they conveyed their preconceived idea that Boeing should be allowed to escape any real consequences for its deadly lies."

Another lawyer representing family members who attended the meeting, Erin Applebaum, said the DOJ's "scripted presentation made it clear that the outcome has already been decided."

The Justice Department said that Boeing would be asked to pay an additional $444.5 million into a crash victims’ fund that would be divided evenly per crash victim, lawyers for the families said, on top of $500 million Boeing paid in 2021.

Nadia Milleron, who lost her daughter in one of the Boeing plane crashes in 2019, told Reuters she questioned how the DOJ, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, could justify cutting a deal with a repeat offender.

In December, US District Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas rejected a previous plea agreement in the case, faulting a diversity and inclusion provision in the deal related to the selection of an independent monitor.

In 2023, O'Connor said: "Boeing's crime may properly be considered the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history."

Boeing has faced enhanced scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration since January 2024, when a new MAX 9 missing four key bolts suffered a mid-air emergency losing a door plug. The FAA has capped production at 38 planes per month.

On Wednesday, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg appeared with President Donald Trump in Qatar to announce the planemaker had landed its biggest deal for widebody airplanes when state carrier Qatar Airways placed firm orders during Trump's visit to the Gulf Arab country for 160 jetliners.

Judge O'Connor's decision to reject Boeing's previous plea agreement prolonged the case into the incoming Trump administration, which has overhauled the Justice Department. Boeing agreed to the initial plea deal during the final months of the Biden administration.

Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia spanning 2018 and 2019, and to pay a fine of up to $487.2 million