The Seattle Times reported Boeing has avoided criminal prosecution for its role in the deaths of 364 people aboard two of its 737 MAX airliners in 2018 and 2019. U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor granted the federal government’s request to dismiss criminal conspiracy charges against Boeing after the company agreed to pay $1.1 billion in fines, compensate families of the victims, and shore up safety and quality control on its airplanes. The criminal charges arose out of FAA allegations that the company deliberately misled certification inspectors about the impact the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System would have on the flight controls. The system was intended to work in the background to mimic the flight characteristics of earlier 737 models, but it ended up putting the two crash airplanes into unrecoverable dives.
The Justice Department told O’Connor it believed the hefty monetary penalty and the measures undertaken by Boeing would more effectively serve the public interests than the criminal charges. Lawyers for the families vigorously opposed the deal and called for a special prosecutor to take over the case at a Sept. 3 hearing. “Do not allow Boeing to buy its freedom,” said Catherine Berthet, who traveled from France to attend the hearing. Her daughter Camille Geoffroy was on the Ethiopian Airlines MAX that crashed in 2019. Boeing said it will live up to its end of the bargain along with “continuing the significant efforts we have made as a company to strengthen our safety, quality, and compliance programs.”
Hmm!
Does not quite pass the smell test does it?
No!
Non Stick Boeing.
“The Justice Department told O’Connor it believed the hefty monetary penalty and the measures undertaken by Boeing would more effectively serve the public interests than the criminal charges.”
Sick of hearing this line. How much of a hefty charge is this? Boeing’s annual operating expense is just around $77B, this penalty is 1.4% of their annual expenses, real hard hitting isn’t it. The way i read it it sounds like the family compensation is on top of that, Boeing will likely give out the bare minimum to them, lets say a million dollars to each family, that’s not even half of the fines so lets round up to 2% of their annual expenses. Last year they operated at a loss of about $10B, this is only a fifth of that.
This is why it feels like a slap in the face to get rid of criminal charges in the name of “public interest”. It must be nice to have billions to throw away and avoid the law.
It is not up to Boeing on how much compensation victim’s families get. Apparently you forgot that civil litigation is not barred and damage awards can be much larger than fines. Boeing is not getting off with minimal costs. In addition to the numerous civil awards Boeing lost huge due to the delayed production and deliveries. Boeing has and will pay big time for this incident and rightly so.
I have to agree with Chad on this one. If a pilot had done something similar to this, in my opinion criminal negligence, he would have been referred to the DOJ for criminal prosecution, and rightly so. He wouldn’t have been able to pay damages to escape responsibility and liability. This is wrong.
Standard operating procedures for DC, including DOJ…they will decide on how much money in fines equals “justice” including determining what is “adequate” for personal/family compensation for the deaths of loved one’s. More criminality on top of Boeing’s in this MAX fiasco. John Q Public sees the fines assigned through the media. However, considering Boeing’s military contracts combined with their considerable lobbying efforts, none of us indentured servants have any way of being assured that these fines are ever collected. Simply numbers from a press release. And I am sure Boeing has cleaned up their act and will begin behaving responsibly suddenly having an epiphany of morality due to “justice” being legislated by the DOJ…SERIOUSLY?
Being a bear of very little brain, I have trouble understanding just how you punish corporations that get criminally convicted in a case like this.
Do you jail the then-CEO (who may not have had any input or even knowledge into the decisions)?
Do you jail the then-Chief Engineer, for one minor decision among thousands?
Do you jail the marketing staff, for not insisting that the full safety equipment is included?
Do you do an old-fashioned Roman decimation of the engineering staff (e.g., kill one in ten)?
The way I understand it, Boeing could throw plenty of shade on the airlines/pilots involved…The airlines not opting for the redundant equipment, the pilots being unable to handle such an equipment failure, the training department not specifically training.
A criminal case requires proof beyond reasonable doubt. Seems to me that Boeing could throw enough doubt into a criminal trial to make a conviction difficult. The DOJ and Boeing would throw millions of dollars into the case, with the good possibility that “Boeing” (or whomever the DOJ decides to blame) will be acquitted.
One or more people in the Boeing corporation made the decision to base the MCAS system on data from a single AOA sensor. More than likely there was at least one engineer who recommended that the MCAS system use multiple AOA sensors. That engineer could likely tell the court who it was that shot down their recommendation. Our criminal justice system has handled complicated cases against organized crime. It should be able to handle a complicated case involving corporate malfeasance. As long as we decide it’s just too hard to hold these folks accountable, they will continue to make the kinds of decisions that got so many people killed in this case.
+1. Malfeasance and criminal negligence would be first starters. I am sure, if you dig in deep enough, you’ll find people who warned higher ups and got silenced or “relocated” after being squeaky wheels.
The problem will remain. Boeing will continue to buy its way out of its natural liability and the fish will continue to stink.
I would remind you that high ranking principals within Volks Wagon were criminally prosecuted for the dieselgate computer scandal
According to the Wikipedia article on the Indonesian crash, airline purchased a USED angle-of-attack sensor that was improperly calibrated. A crew the previous day encountered the same problem, and recovered using a standard procedure. The airline, apparently, did nothing to correct the issue. Not to mention 31 pages missing from the aircraft logbook.
This really muddies the water if you’re trying to hit Boeing with criminal charges.
One has to wonder what sort of evidence the DOJ would use that would meet the requirement for criminal charges. I was a Boeing engineer for 36 years; NEVER was there a case where a transcript was kept during design meetings. The results were documented, of course, but there’d be nothing to the effect that “It was all Joe Smith’s idea.” Sure, there’ll be some memos going back and forth. But how does one separate differences in engineering opinion from criminally-liable actions?
Certainly, like I mentioned, you might try to hold the Chief Engineer responsible…but this isn’t a fraud case like the Volkswagen one. It’s the case of an engineering judgement that, eventually, had a disastrous outcome. The Indonesian NTSB (NTSC) states that Boeing’s assumptions about the ability of the flight crews was wrong…but the assumptions were consistent with industry guidelines.
The Wikipedia article on the accident is interesting…apparently, the draft report put most of the blame on the airline (faulty parts, faulty maintenance, faulty training). But, apparently, political pressure forced a change in the final report. Again, not looking good for criminal charges against Boeing alone.
I’m not saying Boeing should walk, here…the company certainly holds significant responsibility. It’s just that I don’t think the evidence is solid enough for criminal conviction.