Boeing has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement to settle criminal charges for impeding the investigation into the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. Boeing agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to settle a criminal charge related to a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration's Aircraft Evaluation Group.
Federal prosecutors accused Boeing of deceiving the FAA "about an important aircraft part called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that impacted the flight control system of the Boeing 737 MAX." The MCAS system was found to be at fault for both crashes.
"Today's deferred prosecution agreement holds Boeing and its employees accountable for their lack of candor with the FAA regarding MCAS," said Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie Jr. of the FBI's Chicago Field Office. "The substantial penalties and compensation Boeing will pay, demonstrate the consequences of failing to be fully transparent with government regulators."
As part of the settlement, Boeing will provide $1.77 billion in compensation to airlines that purchased the MAX jets and create a $500 million crash-victim beneficiaries fund to compensate the families of 346 passengers who died in the two crashes. The company was also fined $243.6 million.
"This resolution holds Boeing accountable for its employees' criminal misconduct, addresses the financial impact to Boeing's airline customers, and hopefully provides some measure of compensation to the crash-victims' families and beneficiaries," Acting Assistant Attorney General David P. Burns of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said.
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