A lawyer representing victims of two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes has told the BBC that the US government is preparing to offer the planemaker a “sweetheart plea deal”.
Paul Cassell, who said he got the information “directly from the Department of Justice,” added that the deal includes a small fine, three years of probation and independent safety audits.
Boeing did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment, while the Department of Justice (DoJ) declined to make a statement.
Last month, US prosecutors have recommended that the Justice Department file criminal charges against the aircraft manufacturer.
That came after the Justice Department said Boeing violated a 2021 regulation related to the crashes that killed 346 people.
“The memory of the 346 innocent people killed by Boeing demands more justice than this,” Cassell said, adding that “the families will vigorously oppose this plea agreement.”
The plane crashes – both involving Boeing 737 Max jets – occurred six months apart.
The accident involving the Indonesian company Lion Air occurred in October 2018, followed by an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019.
Both accidents were linked to faulty flight control systems.
In a letter sent last month In a letter from Mr Cassell to the Justice Department, the families demanded prosecution of Boeing’s top executives at the time of the crashes and a $24.8bn (£19.6bn) fine for “the deadliest corporate crime in US history”.
The Justice Department has until July 7 to decide whether to revive a criminal fraud charge against Boeing in 2021.
That charge has been dormant since the company acknowledged in a settlement that it misled air safety regulators about aspects of the 737 Max, and promised to create a new compliance system to detect and prevent further fraud.
Under the deal reached in 2021, Boeing said it would pay a $2.5 billion settlement and prosecutors agreed to ask the court to drop criminal charges after three years if the company met certain stipulations set out in the deferred prosecution agreement.
But in May, the Justice Department declared that Boeing had violated the agreement, saying it had failed to “design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.”
Earlier this year, Boeing was thrust into the spotlight again when a door panel fell off a new 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight, leaving a gaping hole.
