Nadia Milliron, whose daughter Samia Stumo was killed in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, holds a sign with photos of crash victims during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on aviation safety and the future of the Boeing 737 MAX. At the Hart Building in Washington, D.C., October 29, 2019.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
A federal judge refused Thursday BoeingThe company's plea deal is related to criminal fraud charges stemming from fatal crashes on the manufacturer's 737 MAX jet.
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas expressed concern in his decision that the selection process for a government-appointed monitor, one of the terms of the plea deal, would be affected by diversity, equity and inclusion. Policies.
“The court is not convinced, in light of the above, that the government would not select a monitor without race-based considerations and therefore would not act in a non-discriminatory manner. In a case of this magnitude, it is in the overriding interest,” he wrote. “It is only fair that the public is confident that this screen selection is being made on the basis of merit alone.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said it was reviewing the decision. Boeing did not immediately comment.
In October, O'Connor ordered Boeing and the Justice Department to provide details about DEI policies that might affect screen selection.
The court gave Boeing and the Justice Department 30 days to decide how to proceed, according to a court document filed Thursday.
In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiring to defraud the US government by misleading regulators about its inclusion of a flight control system on board the Max, which was later implicated in two Lion Air crashes in October. October 2018. And the Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019. All 346 people on board were killed.
Boeing and the Justice Department did not immediately comment.
Victims' family members disagreed with a government-appointed monitor as a condition of the plea agreement, which they called the “sweetheart deal,” and sought more input on the selection of the monitor.
Erin Appelbaum, an attorney representing a family member of the victims, praised the deal. “We expect a significant renegotiation of the plea deal that includes terms that are truly commensurate with the severity of Boeing’s crimes,” Appelbaum said in a statement. “It is time for the Department of Justice to end its lenient treatment of Boeing and demand real accountability.”
The agreement was made to allow Boeing to avoid trial just as it was trying to get the company back on its feet after a door panel on a 737 Max 9 exploded in midair during an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5.
The new plea deal arose after the Justice Department said in May that Boeing had violated its previous plea agreement, which was set to expire days after the door panel incident.
“It is not clear what Boeing did to violate the deferred prosecution agreement,” O'Connor said in his decision Thursday.
Under the new plea agreement, Boeing was set to face a fine of up to $487.2 million. However, the Justice Department recommended that the court award Boeing half the amount it paid under a previous agreement, resulting in a $243.6 million fine.
