Accused by the US Financial Markets Police (SEC) of having publicly issued several messages stating, after two fatal plane crashes, that the 737 MAX did not present a risk, Boeing agreed on Thursday to pay 200 million dollars. Responsible at the time for these messages, the former general manager of the company Dennis Muilenburg for his part agreed to pay a million dollars in fines.
It is primarily an issue with the flight software, MCAS, which caused a Lion Air 737 MAX in October 2018 and then a similar Ethiopian Airlines plane in March 2019 to go into a nose dive without the pilots being able to find them. The crashes caused 346 deaths and caused the immobilization of the 737 MAX for twenty months. The SEC particularly criticizes Boeing for issuing a press release a month after the Lion Air accident, noted and approved by Dennis Muilenburg, highlighting only certain passages in a report by Indonesian authorities that suggested the pilot and poor maintenance they were to blame.
The document also failed to mention an internal assessment that MCAS posed “an aviation safety concern” and that Boeing had already begun work on modifications to address it. Boeing and Dennis Muilenburg “have, however, assured the public that the 737 MAX is ‘as safe as any aircraft that has ever flown in the sky,'” the SEC said in a statement.
Six weeks after the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash, Dennis Muilenburg also told analysts and reporters that “there were no flaws or gaps in the MCAS certification process.” Subsequent documents showed that Boeing had already been made aware of contrary information, the agency said.
basic obligation
Boeing had already admitted in January 2021 that two of its employees had misled a group from the United States Aviation Authority tasked with preparing pilot training for MCAS software. The airline giant had then agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to settle certain lawsuits – including a $243.6 million criminal fine, $1.77 billion in compensation to the airlines that ordered the 737 MAX, and $500 million for a fund earmarked for to compensate the families of the victims.
The SEC found that Boeing and Dennis Muilenburg had violated securities market laws by misleading investors. If they agreed to pay a penalty, the group, like the former director, neither admits nor denies the agency’s conclusions, the press release specifies.
“In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that publicly traded companies and their executives provide full, fair and truthful information to the markets. The Boeing Company and its former boss, Dennis Muilenburg, have failed in this most basic obligation. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in the statement.
“Strengthen security processes”
The settlement with the SEC “is part of the company’s broader efforts to responsibly resolve outstanding legal issues related to the 737 MAX accidents in a manner that best serves the interests of our shareholders, employees and other stakeholders.” A Boeing spokesman responded. The group, since 2019, has “made big and profound changes” to “solidify security processes and oversight of security matters,” he added.
A lawyer for the families of the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, Robert Clifford, calls for further investigations against “Muilenburg or anyone else who persuaded the government to let the Boeing 737 MAX fly,” citing behavior “potentially criminal in nature.” .
Source: BFM TV
