Boeing’s path of the cross with its 737 MAX is not over. In fact, the aircraft manufacturer should be charged in the United States.
A Texas federal judge seized the families of the victims of the two plane crashes of 2018 and 2019 (which caused a total of 346 deaths) and summoned the company to a hearing at the end of January.
These families are outraged by an amicable agreement reached in 2021 between the aircraft manufacturer and the US government. Boeing had admitted that two of its employees had misled authorities by hiding information about MCAS (the software involved in the two accidents) during device certification. The group then agreed to pay $2.5 billion in penalties and compensation.
A $2.5 billion deal
This agreement allowed the American firm to escape charges of “conspiracy to commit fraud.” However, the families of the victims claim they have not been consulted and, at the end of 2021, asked a Texas judge to cancel the agreement.
Fort Worth Judge Reed O’Connor acknowledged in October that these families could be considered “victims of crime” and therefore had a right to be heard.
Therefore, the judge ordered Boeing to send a representative on January 26 to a hearing, where relatives of the victims can be present and speak. In theory, the company will have to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges brought against it by the authorities.
For Robert Clifford, a lawyer representing the families of the victims, the judge’s summons is “a big step” towards the possible reopening of the file.
weird procedure
The magistrate can then decide to leave the agreement in force or modify it, even opening the possibility of prosecuting Boeing officials, he told AFP. Even if these types of agreements entered into by companies with the Ministry of Justice are rarely questioned.
Still, it is very rare in the United States for a company to be charged in the investigation of plane crashes.
The two accidents led to the immobilization of the 737 MAX for 20 months and caused a long air gap for the US aircraft manufacturer against its competitor Airbus. In China, for example, a strategic market for the sector, the MAX only took off again on January 13, having been prohibited from flying since March 2019.
Source: BFM TV
