Latest news with #Max9
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Boeing's $444M Escape Plan? DOJ Deal Could Kill Trial Over Deadly Crashes
The Department of Justice may be ready to let Boeing (NYSE:BA) off the hookagain. According to several people involved in the case, the DOJ is considering a non-prosecution agreement that would spare Boeing (NYSE:BA) a criminal trial in exchange for $444.5 million. That money would be distributed to the families of the 346 people killed in two separate 737 Max crashes. It's not the first time Boeing's avoided the courtroomnor the second. This would mark the third time the aerospace giant dodges a full public reckoning, and the backlash is growing louder. A trial is still on the calendar for June 23. But if this deal goes through, it may never happen. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Signs with BA. From the outside, it looks like a win for Boeing. No conviction. No courtroom. No headlines about executives under oath. But for the families who lost loved ones, it feels like another slap in the face. People committed these crimesnot just a company, said Ike Riffel, who lost two sons in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash. Lawyers say the non-prosecution deal would lack any judicial oversight. One called it the most lenient bargain yet. Boeing, meanwhile, is staying quiet. The company recently secured a $96 billion aircraft deal with Qatar and landed a major Pentagon contract. A criminal conviction could jeopardize bothso the stakes are massive. But behind the scenes, grief is boiling into something else: a demand for truth. Victims' families want answerswho knew what, and when?and they say only a public trial can deliver that. Some have even proposed a counter-offer: a multi-billion dollar safety reform plan funded entirely by Boeing, including factory-floor monitors for the next five years. The door plug incident on an Alaska Airlines Max 9 in early 2024 only reinforced their pointsystemic issues aren't fixed yet. Boeing may be too big to fail, said one family member. But they're also too big to keep building unsafe planes. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Straits Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Boeing reaches deal to avoid prosecution over 737 Max plane crashes
WASHINGTON - The US Justice Department said on May 23 it has struck a deal in principle with Boeing to allow it to avoid prosecution in a fraud case stemming from two fatal 737 Max plane crashes that killed 346 people. The agreement allows Boeing to avoid being branded a convicted felon and is a blow to families who lost relatives in the crashes and had pressed prosecutors to take the US planemaker to trial. A lawyer for family members and two US senators had urged the Justice Department not to abandon its prosecution, but the government quickly rejected the requests. Boeing agreed to pay an additional US$444.5 million (S$573.7 million) into a crash victims' fund that would be divided evenly per crash victim on top of an additional US$243.6 million fine. The Justice Department expects to file the written agreement with Boeing by the end of next week. Boeing will no longer face oversight by an independent monitor under the agreement. Boeing will pay in total over US$1.1 billion including the fine and compensation to families and over US$455 million to strengthen the company's compliance, safety, and quality programs, the Justice Department said. 'Boeing must continue to improve the effectiveness of its anti-fraud compliance and ethics programme and retain an independent compliance consultant,' the department said May 23. 'We are confident that this resolution is the most just outcome with practical benefits.' Boeing did not immediately comment. Reuters first reported on May 16 that Boeing had reached a tentative nonprosecution agreement with the government. The agreement would forestall a June 23 trial date the planemaker faces on a charge it misled US regulators about a crucial flight control system on the 737 Max, its best-selling jet. Boeing in July had agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the two fatal 737 Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia spanning 2018 and 2019, pay a fine of up to US$487.2 million (S$628.8 million) and face three years of independent oversight. Boeing no longer will plead guilty, prosecutors told family members of crash victims during a meeting last week. The company's posture changed after a judge rejected a previous plea agreement in December, prosecutors told the family members. Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas said in 2023 that 'Boeing's crime may properly be considered the deadliest corporate crime in US history.' Boeing has faced enhanced scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration since January 2024, when a new Max 9 missing four key bolts suffered a mid-air emergency losing a door plug. The FAA has capped production at 38 planes per month. DOJ officials in 2024 found Boeing had violated a 2021 agreement, reached during the Trump administration's final days, that had shielded the planemaker from prosecution. That conclusion followed the January 2024 in-flight emergency during an Alaska Airlines' flight. As a result, DOJ officials decided to reopen the older fatal crashes case and negotiate a plea agreement with Boeing. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Fox News
21-03-2025
- Fox News
Boeing 'threatened to break' whistleblower who died by suicide: Lawsuit
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988. The family of a Boeing whistleblower who died by suicide last year filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday accusing the aircraft giant of fostering a toxic culture and retaliating against employees. John Barnett shot himself in the head in his truck outside a South Carolina hotel in March 2024 after he gave deposition testimony in Charleston regarding his whistleblower complaint. The lawsuit accuses Boeing of fostering a "deep rooted culture of concealing defects and safety violations, and of harassing, denigrating, and retaliating against employees who try to follow the law, FAA's rules and regulations, and Boeing's own purported processes and procedures." "When John tried to do his job, Boeing Management pressured him to not document defects or to not properly document the aircraft build record in order to avoid production delays," the lawsuit states. "When John persisted, Management embarked on a concerted campaign of harassment, abuse, and intimidation intended to discourage, discredit, and humiliate him until he would either give up or be discredited." Fox News Digital has reached out to Boeing for comment. The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in South Carolina says Barnett was passionate about his job and believed he had a moral obligation to keep the flying public safe, but eventually, "the concerted harassment and abuse" became "too much." He was diagnosed with PTSD, depression, panic attacks, and anxiety stemming from his work in 2017. For example, in late October 2016, Barnett's senior manager called him a total of 19 times over an eight-hour period, according to the lawsuit. A few days later, the same manager allegedly called Barnett 21 times over eight hours, apparently telling Barnett, "I'm going to push you until you break." "Boeing had threatened to break John and break him it did." In an email Barnett wrote dated February 2021, he said he was "trying to figure out what it would take to make" himself feel "whole again." "I used to be a very happy go lucky guy [sic] that loved his job, his Company and the products they built. I had a very positive outlook on life. Boeing has absolutely destroyed my outlook on life," Barnnett wrote. Just before his death, Barnett wrote a suicide note. "America, come together or die!!" he wrote. "I pray the motherf---ers that destroyed my life pay!!! I pray Boeing pays!!! Bury me face down so Boeing and their lying-a-- leaders can kiss my a--." "P.S.," Barnnett continued, "The entire system for whistleblowers protection [sic] is f---ed up too!!" Barnett was found dead after he failed to appear for his third day of deposition testimony in Charleston in March of last year. In January 2024, Barnett told TMZ that he was concerned that Boeing was returning its 737 Max 9 jets to the sky too quickly, after an incident in which an Alaska Airlines jet's door panel blew off mid-flight. Unrelated to Barnett's lawsuit, Boeing's CEO Dave Calhoun announced last March that he would be resigning by the end of 2024 amid the company's ongoing struggles.
