Federal prosecutors confirm they may drop Boeing criminal charge

The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed it is considering a new deal that would allow Boeing to avoid a criminal fraud conviction stemming from two deadly 737 Max accidents six years ago.

Federal prosecutors said in a court filing Saturday they had been in discussions with Boeing about a “nonprosecution agreement” that would require the airplane manufacturer to take certain actions and the Justice Department to dismiss the pending criminal charge.

The court filing confirms reports from attorneys representing the crash victims’ families, who learned of the potential new deal Friday at a meeting with federal prosecutors. The families’ attorneys said they were outraged by the proposed deal, with one equating it to a “get out of jail free” card.

The victims’ families have long called for more action from the Department of Justice to hold Boeing accountable for the crashes, which killed a total of 346 people.

Paul Cassell, an attorney representing many of those families, said in a statement after Friday’s meeting that federal prosecutors laid out “their preconceived idea that Boeing should be allowed to escape any real consequences for its deadly lies. … Dismissing the case would dishonor the memories of 346 victims.”

The Justice Department said in its Saturday court filing that it had not made a decision on whether it would enter into the proposed agreement or proceed to trial, which is currently set for June 23 in U.S. District Court in Northern Texas.

Federal prosecutors will consider input from the victims’ families in its final decision about how to proceed, the court filing continued.

The proposed agreement would be the third such deal between Boeing and the Justice Department since federal prosecutors first charged the aerospace company in 2021 with one count of criminal fraud.

The Justice Department accused Boeing of misleading safety regulators from the Federal Aviation Administration about a new software system on the 737 MAX plane. An error with that system caused two planes to nosedive, first in Indonesia in 2018 and again in Ethiopia in 2019.

Two years later, Boeing and the Justice Department entered into a deferred prosecution agreement that would have allowed the company to avoid the criminal charge if it met certain conditions, including improving its compliance systems.

But federal prosecutors determined in May 2024, shortly after a panel blew off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane, that the company had violated the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement.

The two parties then agreed to a plea deal in July, which would have required Boeing to pay a $244 million fine, commit $455 million to improve compliance programs and hire an independent monitor to oversee its processes. Boeing agreed to plea guilty as part of that deal.

A federal district judge in Texas struck that plea deal down in December, taking issue with the fact that the Justice Department would consider diversity in selecting the independent monitor.

After behind-the-scenes discussions between the Justice Department and Boeing revealed that the company no longer intended to plea guilty, Judge Reed O’Connor set the trial date for June 23.

Now, the Justice Department and Boeing have discussed a new “pretrial resolution” but have not drafted a written agreement, according to the court filing Saturday.

The “possible framework” of that agreement would “impose obligations on both parties,” the filing said.

For Boeing, the obligations would be similar to those outlined in the earlier plea deal, including another fine, the creation of another fund to compensate victims’ families, compliance improvements and an independent consultant to oversee compliance, according to the filing.

For the Justice Department, the nonprosecution agreement would mean dropping the criminal charge. The agreement would dismiss the charge without prejudice, the court filing said, meaning prosecutors could revisit it later.

Cassell and other attorneys representing those who lost loved ones in the crashes said they intend to object to the nonprosecution agreement and ask Judge O’Connor to reject the proposal.