The fuselage flap area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX, which was forced to make an emergency landing due to a gap in the fuselage, is seen during the Transportation Safety Board’s investigation National (NTSB) in Portland, Oregon, United States January 7, 2024.
NTSB | Via Reuters
US prosecutors plan to seek guilty pleas from Boeing over charges related to two deadly crashes of its 737 Max planes, lawyers for victims’ family members said Sunday, calling a potential settlement a “sweetheart deal.”
Justice Department attorneys, victims’ family members and their attorneys spoke for about two hours on Sunday, the attorneys said.
Boeing declined to comment and it is unclear whether it will accept the plea deal. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Justice Department said in May that it was considering whether Boeing violated the 2021 settlement protected Boeing aircraft from federal fees. The company has agreed to pay a $2.5 billion fine for conspiracy charges related to the crashes of its best-selling 737 Max planes in 2018 and 2019, which killed all 346 people on two flights.
The Justice Department has reviewed the deal after a door panel blew off a new 737 Max 9 in mid-air during a Alaska Airlines flight in January, sparking a new safety and quality control crisis for one of the world’s two major commercial aircraft suppliers.
Boeing admitted that two of its pilots defrauded the Federal Aviation Administration by concealing the addition of a new flight control system to the planes before they were flown commercially. That system was later involved in two crashes, DOJ said in 2021.
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