Boeing has violated the terms of a deal to avoid prosecution after the fatal crashes of two 737 Max planes more than five years ago, the Department of Justice told a federal judge on Tuesday.
Boeing has violated the terms of a deal to avoid prosecution after the fatal crashes of two 737 Max planes more than five years ago, the U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge on Tuesday.
That means the troubled plane maker could be subject to criminal prosecution for defrauding federal regulators, though Justice Department lawyers stopped short of saying whether they will pursue that remedy.
“The Government has determined that Boeing breached its obligations” under the agreement it reached with the Justice Department in early 2021, “by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws,” prosecutors wrote in a letter to Federal District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas.
The two-page letter does not mention Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, when a door-plug panel blew off a 737 Max jet in midair in January. But that incident has sparked renewed scrutiny of Boeing’s operations by federal regulators, as well as the Justice Department, which has opened a separate investigation.
