Boeing will plead guilty to criminal fraud charges related to the two deadly B737MAX 8 crashes that occurred between 2018 and 2019.
According to washingtonpost.com, Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to deceive regulators in the case relating to the crashes on Lion Air's JT610 and Ethiopian Airlines ET302.
In March 2019, the then Boeing CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, claimed that a software update would address the issues on the B737 that caused the Lion Air and Ethiopian crashes, which claimed the lives of 346 people. But prosecutors more recently allegedly claimed that two pilots hid critical information about the aircraft's automated control system from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Since the guilty plea has been lodged, the high-profile case will not go to trial, reported washingtonpost.com.
According to cnbc.com, the plea deal entails that Boeing be fined $243,6 million (R4,4 billion), which was the same amount it paid in the 2021 settlement. The deal also calls for an independent compliance monitor to be implemented to oversee during Boeing’s three-year probationary period. Lastly, a US prosecutors’ court filing obtained from cnbc.com, disclosed that the manufacturer would be required to invest $455 million (R8,2 billion) in compliance and safety programmes.
