Nadia Milleron, whose daughter Samya Stumo died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, poses 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 aircraft. He has a placard with this written on it. October 29, 2019 at the Hart Building in Washington, DC.
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A federal judge rejected it Thursday. boeingThe plea deal relates to criminal fraud charges stemming from a fatal crash involving the company’s 737 Max aircraft.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas raised concerns in his ruling that the selection process for government-appointed monitors, a condition of the plea agreement, is influenced by diversity, equity, and inclusion. expressed. policy.
“The court is not satisfied, given the foregoing, that the government does not select monitors without race-based considerations and therefore does not act in a non-discriminatory manner,” he said. So, the court is in the best interest.” In the name of justice, I urge the public to be convinced that the selection of these monitors is based solely on their ability. ”
In October, O’Connor ordered Boeing and the Department of Justice to provide details on DEI policies that could affect the monitor’s selection.
The court gave Boeing and the Department of Justice 30 days to decide how to proceed, according to court documents filed Thursday.
In July, Boeing was accused by the U.S. government of misleading regulators about the flight control system installed in a Max plane that was later implicated in two crashes, including one on a Lion Air flight in October 2018. agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud. And an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019. All 346 people on the flight died.
Boeing and the Justice Department did not immediately comment.
Victims’ families objected to the government’s decision to appoint a monitor as a condition of the plea deal, calling it a “sweetheart deal,” and asked for more opinions on the selection of the monitor.
Erin Applebaum, an attorney representing one of the victims’ families, praised the deal. “I look forward to a significant renegotiation of the plea agreement with terms that truly commensurate with the seriousness of Boeing’s crimes,” Applebaum said in a statement. “The time has come for the Department of Justice to end its lenient treatment of Boeing and demand real accountability.”
The deal was set up to help Boeing avoid court as it tries to get the company back on solid footing after a door panel on a 737 Max 9 exploded mid-air during an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5. Ta.
The new plea deal comes after the Justice Department announced in May that Boeing had violated an earlier 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 Thursday’s decision.
Under the new plea agreement, Boeing faces up to $487.2 million in fines. However, the Department of Justice recommended that the court compensate Boeing for half of what it paid under the previous contract, resulting in a $243.6 million fine.
