Boeing Co. has reached a tentative agreement with the US Justice Department that would allow the planemaker to avoid criminal charges for two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jets more than six years ago.
The settlement was disclosed in a federal court filing Friday, just weeks before a trial was set to start June 23 in Fort Worth, Texas. It calls for the company to pay more than $1.1 billion and strengthen quality and safety measures, Justice Department lawyers said.
It’s a stunning turnaround in the long-running legal case. Just last year, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal conspiracy. But that deal was rejected in December by US District Judge Reed O’Connor, who has been overseeing the case since 2021.
The new agreement — reached over strong objections from some victims’ families — still needs to be approved by O’Connor. The government said a final agreement will be filed by the end of next week, but provided an overview of the terms in its filing. Among them: a $243.6 million fine for Boeing and a order for the planemaker’s board of directors to meet with family members of people killed in the crashes.
The tentative agreement would allow require Boeing to contribute $444.5 million to a fund for families of victims killed in the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019, according to the filing. Boeing also would spend $455 million to strengthen its compliance, safety and quality programs, the filing shows.
“Ultimately, in applying the facts, the law, and Department policy, we are confident that this resolution is the most just outcome with practical benefits,” prosecutors said in a statement, noting that they’d “met extensively” with relatives of the victims.
