Boeing is facing a critical moment as it confronts federal criminal charges that it conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration, stemming from the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people.
The case, United States v. Boeing, has been scheduled to go to trial on June 23, 2025. They key here is that Boeing no longer has any realistic defense options.
- Initially, the Justice Department charged Boeing in January 2021, simultaneously filing a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) under which Boeing avoided prosecution in exchange for committing to safety reforms and compliance measures over three years.
- Under this agreement, Boeing admitted explicitly that its officers, directors, and employees had misled the FAA about critical safety details concerning the 737 MAX’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a malfunction of which directly led to the crashes.
- The Justice Department determined that Boeing breached its obligations under the agreement. (Notably, the Alaska Airlines door plug blew out two days before the agreement expired.)
- Boeing entered into a plea agreement in July 2024 to pay a $455 million fine but not admit responsibility for the MAX fatalities.
- This plea was rejected by the judge, in part due to DEI commitments demanded by the Biden DOJ (as well as how the deal tied the judge’s hands on sentencing, using a guidelines calculation based on not having caused any harm).
Now a June trial date has been set, which should force progress in the since-stalled proceedings. However Boeing literally has no defense at trial because they admitted to the crime in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement. Their only ‘out’ here is a plea deal acceptable to the judge, if the government allows it, ‘because they’re Boeing’.
- The deferred prosecution admits fraud. The Statement of Facts accepted by Boeing explains that their 737 MAX Flight Technical Pilots misled the FAA on critical safety information regarding MCAS.
- It’s attested to by the CEO
- And agreed that the facts would be admissible as substantive evidence in future prosecutions
- Furthermore, the agreement even bars Boeing from challenging the admissibility of this evidence in court
Boeing doesn’t want to admit culpability – which is why they wanted the plea agreement that was rejected. An admission opens them up to even greater liability to victims’ families. Their only course here is either a guilty plea, or getting their lobbyists to work DOJ well enough that they come up with a bigger penalty without admission of fault that they can sell to the judge.
Boeing already plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge related to the two fatal 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people, and already agreed to pay a fine of up to $487.2 million and to spend $455 million to improve safety and compliance practices over three years of court-supervised probation as part of the deal, yet now they want to withdraw their plea–so, what changed? Like, does Boeing think this administration will accept a bribe (sorry, I meant ‘gratuity’) and let them off? Please, no.
Secretary Duffy already told Congress that Boeing needed “tough love,” but if that means ‘letting them off’ with just ‘a slap on the wrist’ then that’s not ‘tough love’ at all–that’s complicity.
One of the Deputy Secretaries (of Transportation), Steve Bradbury, said recently at a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee: “We need to be tougher on Boeing. We need to be tougher on the industry.” Yes. That is the way. Please don’t give up on our safety just for quick profits ever again.
They need to go to prison for the murders of these poor passengers. Yet, corporations can get away with murder.
Time for the new CEO to appropriately and correctly throw past leadership under the bus. They deserve it — and more.
Slap on the wrist from the current administration so they can make the “F-47” better known as the “Fascist 47”
Sadly this is 2025…honestly and integrity mean little if money is at stake…..or power
@Lamont — Have you seen the show BoJack Horseman? Because, your comment “corporations can get away with murder,” reminded me of the scene from the episode titled, ‘Feel-Good Story,’ in Season 6, about a fictional character, ‘Jeremiah Whitewhale,’ who is the head of a mega-conglomerate (think Bezos or Elon), admits to the murder of one of his employees (merely because that employee took too many bathroom breaks and had encouraged other employees to do so as well), but he does not care of his admission (to what would otherwise be a crime, you know, ‘murder’), since he got Congress to pass a bill ‘legalizing murder if you are rich.’ Well, pardon me for ‘explaining the joke,’ but you can find a quick YouTube video of the segment, ‘really diane?’ and it exemplifies your sentiments (as well as mine) on how absurd all this is. Blatant greed and corruption that costs lives. @L737 — Did I do the reference right?
…or plan B, figure out a way to get Trump his AF1 in the next 2yrs in exchange for a favorable outcome with the DoJ
@1990 Ah yes, solid reference!! Great callback. Poor Diane.
Curious to see how this all unfolds….
“yet now they want to withdraw their plea–so, what changed?”
It looks like they already had a “deferred prosecution agreement” (corporate version of being on probation basically), with part of the terms being that they would improve their safety. And the plug blowing out on the Alaska Airlines flight, plus the linked info from a whistleblower pointing to a probable cause for this.. that their own procedures weren’t being followed for defects… violated the terms of that agreement.
Then a more recent plea agreement (July 2024) was rejected by the judge.
@hwertz — Well, then, I guess there’s just one thing left to do… *slaps Boeing on the wrist*
Corporate death penalty. Force them to shut down all operations, liquidate their assets, and distribute them amongst the families of the MAX passengers. Call it a day.
Boeing needs to have top brass serve real prison time in a medium security facility for at least several years for killing all those people through greed. Penalties that corporations pay are not going to make CEO’s choose good decisions while a stint in prison will be more effective.
@Christian — With you 100% on that. The real corruption in our system is at the top, not the bottom, yet, wow, the attention and swift punishment that mere petty crime gets is absurd, all while the real theft is clearly the kleptocrats who pay no tax, get all the money and power, then use the culture war to divide and conquer the rest of us. I’m pretty cynical about there being any real change anytime soon, but I still have hope—people can say ‘enough is enough’ and demand accountability, like with Boeing. Thank you for saying what you said here.
Armchair aviators . . . they just don’t know what they just don’t know.
@One Trippe — Why don’t you actually contribute on-substance? Or, at the very least, shoot-the-shit with us. So quick to gripe about your fellow commenters. And you were recently actually sharing some stuff on other recent posts, but, alas… back to your old ways here. Psh. C’mon, you have to have an opinion on the once-great company Boeing if you frequent VFTW. Out with it, sir (or madam)!
Boeing doesn’t need to any of what you suggest. Under the new dispensation they just need to buy enough dinners in Florida or enough of the right kinds of crypto.
Nothing that cannot be fixed by personally enriching the Pres ident of the USA.
Lots of messages are flying off on Signal as we speak.
There’s always gonna be an a**h*** like “Ray” who would throw the “fascist” card. It’s like throwing the “racist” card into a conversation that has nothing to do with the conversation/article. You can’t fix stupid.
PLEEEEEEASE DON’T LAY OFF THE DOOR PLUG GUY!
@Win Whitmire — Oh, come on. @Ray seemed to be joking, clearly. The “F” in all those jet is for “Fighter”–it’s an aviation blog. Most of us know better.
But, since y’all brought it up: At what point is it not ‘over-reacting’ to coin things as ‘fascist’ or ‘racist’ or ‘sexist’ etc. Because, these days, there are real-world examples. For instance, whether you will admit it or not, the administration is literally ‘renditioning’ people from the USA, without due process, to El Salvadorian concentration camps. That’s pretty fascist to me. At the very least, it is extra-judicial and unconstitutional. Do you simply prefer ‘less hard-hitting’ words? We’ll try to be mindful of your sensibilities, but you may want to be more open to free speech. After all, wasn’t it the right-wingers who were all concerned with ‘due process’ and ‘cancel culture’ recently? Or did all that change once you got back in-power and could abuse the rest of us yet again… hmm.
This will be interesting now that we’re in an oligarchy and one of Boeing’s primary competitors is the richest person in the world with virtually unchecked access to all federal data. With the government, and by extension the Justice Department, controlled by a foreign adversary, the payoffs are going to be huge
Come on Gary – you know Boeing’s defense will be “DEI! DEI!” DEI is of course why the ET302 pilots were Ethiopian, not white men (though doesn’t ET have many western-based pilots also?). Oh yeah, and white men never crash planes, right? You’ve pretty much said exactly that in one of your prior posts about the MAX accidents.