DOJ moves to end Boeing felony case
With help from Oriana Pawlyk
QUICK FIX
— The Justice Department announced a non-prosecution agreement with Boeing in an ongoing fraud conspiracy case tied to deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
— The Army wrapped up an internal review after an early May incident in which a Black Hawk helicopter near the Pentagon caused go-arounds for two commercial jets.
— It's a big day in court for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's lawsuit over the Trump administration's attempt to end congestion pricing in Manhattan.
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Driving the day
BIG CHANGE: The Justice Department said Friday it had reached an agreement to end its felony case against Boeing for the company's role in the 2018 and 2019 MAX 8 disasters in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which killed 346 people. Oriana and Sam have the story. Under the deal, the plane-maker must spend more than $1.1 billion on fines, safety improvements and compensation for the relatives of those who died. Democratic lawmakers last week assailed the DOJ's shift.
WHAT MUST THE COMPANY 'ADMIT' TO? Under the agreement, the Justice Department will ask a federal judge to dismiss the case — but Boeing will have to 'admit to conspiracy to obstruct and impede' federal regulators. The company declined to comment. DOJ in a statement said: 'Nothing will diminish the victims' losses, but this resolution holds Boeing financially accountable, provides finality and compensation for the families and makes an impact for the safety of future air travelers.'
AWAITING WORD: Judge Reed O'Connor, of the Northern District of Texas, could dismiss the case ahead of a scheduled trial next month. Victims' families filed a petition with the court Friday to oppose that.
Aviation
SERVICE SAYS IT'S OK: An internal Army review found 'no deviations from approved flight paths and no risk of intersecting air traffic' when on May 1 a Black Hawk helicopter flying in Washington airspace forced two commercial jets inbound for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to perform go-around maneuvers, the military branch said in a statement Friday. (The Army suspended such flights after a wave of concern from lawmakers.)
— The service said the Black Hawk was landing at the Pentagon at the time and carried no passengers, and its location was broadcast via ADS-B Out. The go-arounds, directed by air traffic controllers at Reagan National, were 'out of an apparent abundance of caution,' the Army said. The first of these occurred before the helicopter reached the Pentagon helipad and 'was the result of an issue with sequencing of air traffic' by the airport's tower, according to the Army. The second came during the Black Hawk's 'subsequent traffic pattern and was based on conflicting positional data from legacy tracking systems.'
MORE SPECIFIC: Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, the Army's aviation chief, in an interview with the AP said that military air traffic controllers lost contact with the Black Hawk for about 20 seconds as it approached the Pentagon 'because a temporary control tower antenna was not set up in a location where it would be able to maintain contact,' the wire service reports. Reagan National controllers aborted the first plane landing as the Black Hawk flew toward the Pentagon because 'both aircraft would be nearing the [building] around the same time, Braman said.' Then, because of the loss of contact, 'the Pentagon's tower did not clear the Black Hawk to land, so the helicopter circled the Pentagon a second time. That's when [Reagan National] controllers ... decided to abort the landing of a second jet' because 'they did not have a confident fix on the Black Hawk's location,' according to the AP, which cited Braman.
GETTING SOME CLARITY: In a call with reporters Friday, United Airlines offered a breakdown of how the FAA's interim order temporarily capping hourly arrival and departure rates at Newark Liberty International Airport compares to current flight operations. The key difference? The airport normally is scheduled to have 77 arrivals and departures per hour, but instead has regularly operated around 83 to 84 per hour (including both domestic and international travel). Many airlines reduced their schedules due to ongoing runway construction that goes until June 15 at Newark. Then, after the radar and communications outages began late last month, United further lowered its number of flights.
— Now, under the FAA's order, both arrivals and departures can't exceed 28 per hour (56 total) until mid-June and on Saturdays from Sept. 1 until the end of the year. They also can't go above 34 per hour (68 total) through Oct. 25, after the daily runway construction wraps up next month. (The lower cap will still apply on Saturdays during this timeframe.)
Automobiles
TAKING IT TO COURT: A federal judge in New York City at 10 a.m. today will hold a hearing on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's pending request for a preliminary injunction that would block DOT from terminating the congestion pricing tolls in Manhattan while a lawsuit continues. (Others are seeking an injunction, as well: the New York DOT, New York City DOT and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority.)
Electric Vehicles
DISMISSIVE: A day after the Government Accountability Office concluded that DOT had violated federal impoundment law by refusing to spend appropriated funds on electric vehicle charging infrastructure, White House budget director Russell Vought on Friday mocked the watchdog's opinion in an X post. 'These are non-events with no consequence. Rearview mirror stuff,' he wrote, after noting that he expects similar GAO findings in the future.
ALL IN THIS TOGETHER? The governors of Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington said Friday they are joining California to form an 'Affordable Clean Cars Coalition' — but avoided any policy commitments, Camille von Kaenel reports. The announcement came after the Senate voted last week to overturn a Biden-era EPA waiver for California's EV mandate, which these states had signed on to. (Some had recently taken steps to roll back their commitments.)
At the Agencies
ICYMI: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in an X post Friday, referencing a recent Reuters report that a DOGE team has been assigned to review operations at the NTSB, said: 'This is a blatant conflict of interest. Oversight Dems will not allow Musk to weaken the agency that keeps our roads safe and give his company a free pass.' (The independent safety board has probed Tesla crashes.)
The Autobahn
— 'Runway lights not working before fatal San Diego plane crash, NTSB says.' Washington Post.
— 'SpaceX Pushes to Get Starship Rocket Ready for Mars by Next Year.' Wall Street Journal.
— 'Tariffs Add Fuel to Hot Used-Car Sales.' Wall Street Journal.
— 'Daddy's home: Andy Byford to make NYC return for Penn Station remake, White House says.' Gothamist.
— 'Inside United's Command Center at Newark Airport.' New York Times.
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He believes things would need to get 'very bad indeed' for the Government to impose conscription, which applied to men aged 18-41 during the Second World War. But he points out that the calling up of British armed forces reservists would be very likely, along with the potential mobilisation of what is known as the 'strategic reserve' – those among the country's 1.8 million veterans who are still fit to serve. There are around 32,000 volunteer reservists and an undisclosed number of regular reserves, former regular members of the armed forces who are still liable to be called up. 'There's a big pool of people we don't tap at the moment who are already trained,' explains Crump. 'But there would be consequences if the entire reserve was called forward, which would have to happen if we entered a reasonably sized conflict. It would certainly cause disruptions. 'The medical services are hugely integrated with the NHS, for example, and we saw the effects of them being called forward with Iraq and Afghanistan.' The sort of supermarket chaos that erupted during the Covid-19 pandemic would also return with a vengeance if a significant conflict broke out. During that crisis, grocers had to limit how many packs of loo rolls and cans of chopped tomatoes shoppers were allowed to take home, among other items, because of supply chain problems. 'If we're in a conflict, that sort of supply chain activity would increase,' notes Crump. 'So you don't necessarily have rationing imposed, but there might be issues with food production, delivery, payment and getting things to the right place. 'In a world where we don't have our own independent supply chains, we're reliant on a lot of very interconnected moving parts that have been enabled by this period of peace. 'We've never been in a conflict during a time where we've had 'just in time' systems.' Crump brings up the recent blackouts in Spain and Portugal. British grocers initially thought their food supplies would be completely unaffected because truck loads of tomatoes had already made their way out of the country when the problem struck. But the vehicles were electronically locked, to prevent illegal migrants attempting to clamber inside when they cross the English Channel and could only be unlocked from Spain – where the power cuts had taken down computer systems and telecoms. 'People in Spain couldn't get online, so we had locked trucks full of tomatoes sitting here that we couldn't open because of technology,' Crump says. 'No one had ever thought, 'But what happens if all of Spain goes off the grid?' And I'm sure the answer would have been, 'That'll never happen' anyway.' This tendency towards 'normalcy bias' is what Crump tries to steer his clients away from. While it isn't inevitable that war will break out, or that there will be another pandemic, humans tend to assume that things will revert to whatever the status quo has been in their lifetimes, he says. This can mean we fail to take the threat of unlikely scenarios seriously enough, or use outdated ways of thinking to solve new problems. 'We've had this long period of peace and prosperity. And, of course, business leaders have grown up in that. Military leaders have grown up in it. Politicians have grown up in it. And so it's very hard when that starts to change. 'People have grown up in a world of rules. And I think people are still trying to find ways in which the game is still being played by those old rules.' Unsurprisingly, given his line of work, Crump believes businesses must get more comfortable contemplating the unthinkable. 'Go back a decade and most executives did not want to have a crisis because a crisis is bad for your career, so they didn't want to do a test exercise – because you might fail,' Crump adds. 'But the whole point is that you can fail in an exercise, because it's not real life.' At least, not yet. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
