Planemaker set to be offered plea deal, angering loved ones of the 346 people who died on 2018 and 2019 flights<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US Department of Justice is set to charge Boeing <\/strong>with fraud, but plans to offer the planemaker a plea deal, according to sources familiar with the matter \u2013 have infuriated the loved ones of hundreds of passengers who died in two fatal crashes five years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boeing will be granted until the end of this week to decide whether it will plead guilty to the charge and avoid trial, officials told families of those on board the fatal Lion Air flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 that claimed 346 lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attorneys representing the relatives accused the federal government of cooking up \u201canother sweetheart plea deal\u201d with Boeing. On a conference call on Sunday, one official is said to have been asked by a family member how he sleeps at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Relatives were briefed on the terms of the proposed deal during the call: Boeing would pay a fine, face a three-year term of probation, and work under a corporate monitor, according to two sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The terms unleashed a wave of anger. \u201cThe memory of 346 innocents killed by Boeing demands more justice than this,\u201d said Paul Cassell, who represents the families of 15 crash victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Erin Applebaum, another attorney acting for relatives of those lost, attacked the proposal as \u201cshameful\u201d and said it \u201ccompletely fails to mention or recognize the dignity\u201d of the victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The families will make the case to a judge, and the wider public, for this deal to be rejected, Applebaum said. \u201cAnd when there is inevitably another Boeing crash and DoJ seeks to assign blame, they will have nowhere else to look but in the mirror.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two crashes of Boeing\u2019s 737 Max, in October 2018 and March 2019, killed 346 people. It prompted the worldwide grounding of the jet for almost two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021, the justice department and Boeing reached a controversial deal that protected the company from a criminal conspiracy charge to commit fraud that arose from the two crashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this year, however \u2013 as the company came under intense scrutiny after a brand-new 737 Max jet was forced into an emergency landing<\/a> when a cabin panel blew off mid-flight \u2013 the justice department said Boeing had breached this agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The deal it has been offered \u201cappears to be a sweetheart deal\u201d, said Sanjiv Singh, counsel for 16 families of crash victims, citing a request for the Department of Justice to independently appoint a corporate monitor of Boeing, rather that permit the company to nominate its own candidates. \u201cI am stunned that the department deflected our demand and fell back on \u2018oh it\u2019s policy\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Relatives of those who died \u201cwill strenuously object to this plea deal\u201d, said Cassell, who described the agreement as a \u201cno-accountability-deal\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe deal will not acknowledge, in any way, that Boeing\u2019s crime killed 346 people,\u201d Cassell said. \u201cIt also appears to rest on the idea that Boeing did not harm any victim.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Separately, as Boeing continues to grapple with the crisis triggered by January\u2019s cabin blowout, Reuters reported on Sunday<\/a> that it had agreed to buy Spirit AeroSystems \u2013 a key supplier \u2013 in a deal which values the firm at more than $4bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n