The case was tied to two air disasters that killed 346 people overseas.
A federal judge on Thursday granted a Justice Department request to dismiss a felony case against Boeing tied to two passenger jet crashes that killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas OK’d the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the case. The Trump administration sought the dismissal after it struck a non-prosecution agreement in May with the aerospace company — less than a year after the plane-maker had agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal with the Biden administration. The charge was conspiracy to defraud the government.
Some victims’ families had opposed the move to drop the case, but O’Connor, a President George W. Bush appointee, in a 10-page order Thursday granted the motion because the government “has not acted with bad faith, has given more than mere conclusory reasons for its dismissal, and has satisfied its obligations” under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
O’Connor, though, stressed that he was concerned about the non-prosecution agreement, saying it “disregards the need for Boeing to be subject to independent monitoring,” instead allowing the company to pick its own compliance consultant.
O’Connor wrote that victims’ families were “correct that this agreement fails to secure the necessary accountability to ensure the safety of the flying public,” given “Boeing’s history related to this case (and the Government’s continued failure to gain Boeing’s compliance).”
Boeing said in a statement, “We are committed to honoring the obligations of our agreement with the Department of Justice. We are also committed to continuing the significant efforts we have made as a company to strengthen our safety, quality, and compliance programs.” The DOJ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under the non-prosecution agreement, the company must spend over $1.1 billion on fines, safety improvements and compensation for families of the people who died in the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes in October 2018 and March 2019.