Boeing pleads guilty to defrauding US government
Boeing admits to defrauding the US government to avoid a court case regarding two fatal crashes of 737 Max aircraft. This information comes from a document of the US Department of Justice for the relevant federal court in Texas. The consequences are a new fine of millions and a government overseer for the US aircraft manufacturer.
The accidents occurred in October 2018 and March 2019, resulting in the deaths of 346 people. At the time, Boeing avoided prosecution in part by promising to implement a Compliance- and Ethics-Program. The company also paid a fine of 243.6 million dollars. The Justice Department concluded in May that Boeing violated the terms of the previous deal.
The trigger for this was the near-accident in January, when a Boeing plane's fuselage fragment detached during climb. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident. However, the fact that the seats next to the hole in the fuselage were empty by a lucky coincidence also played a role.
The crashes in 2018 and 2019 were caused by a plane software that was supposed to assist pilots but intervened more strongly than expected in the control. It directed the planes towards the ground, and the pilots of the two planes were ultimately unable to recover them. Planes of this type were grounded nearly for two years until the software error was fixed.
Boeing was then indicted in a criminal trial for fraud, as Boeing employees had falsely declared to US regulatory agencies that special training for the software was unnecessary during the type certification process.
After the US government indicted Boeing for fraud, it was revealed that the aircraft manufacturer had defrauded the government following the fatal crashes of their 737 Max aircraft. The US government overseer, implemented as a consequence, will now monitor Boeing after the crash accidents.
