Boeing has agreed to acknowledge its culpability in the crashes of two "737 Max 8" planes about five years ago. According to reports today (Monday) in the United States, the company will admit in a federal plea agreement to "engaging in deceptive conduct."
In addition to the criminal admission of guilt, Boeing will face a federal fine of $243.6 million and will be required to invest $1 billion over the next three years in strengthening regulatory compliance. As part of the settlement reached, Boeing executives will be required to meet with the families of those killed in the two air accidents. So far, Boeing executives have avoided meeting with the families, claiming they are not responsible for the events that led to the deaths of the passengers and crew.
The crashes involved a Lion Air plane crash in Indonesia on October 29, 2018, in which 181 passengers and 8 crew members were killed. Additionally, the company admits responsibility for the crash that occurred on March 10, 2019, of an Ethiopian Airlines plane, in which 149 passengers and 8 crew members perished.
Since the crashes, Boeing has claimed that pilot errors led to the crashes of both planes, but comprehensive investigations have determined that a new system Boeing introduced into the planes provided incorrect data to the flight deck. In fact, Boeing's business plan was based on attempting to present an old model of the company's plane as completely new, with minor modifications, in order to save production costs and increase the number of planes sold.
As part of the cost-saving effort, Boeing decided not to conduct workshops on the new systems, which were nonetheless implemented in the aircraft in question. As a result, pilots were unfamiliar with operating conditions caused by Boeing's new systems. Following the crashes, Boeing attempted to argue that the pilots were not sufficiently skilled and did not know how to operate routine situations during flight. In practice, the crashes occurred because the pilots were unfamiliar with the operation of Boeing's new systems.
The U.S. Department of Justice reached an agreement in 2021 to suspend criminal charges against Boeing, but days before the end of the suspension period, the incident occurred on an Alaska Airlines flight in January 2024, during which minutes after takeoff from Portland - the door detached, causing a rapid drop in pressure. Luckily, no one was seated next to the door, otherwise they might have been sucked out of the plane and fallen to their death.
The incident exposed failures in manufacturing processes, stemming from large-scale outsourcing of components. As a result, Boeing re-acquired the services of "Spirit Aerosystems" - formerly a Boeing division, sold 20 years ago as part of an "efficiency improvement process".
* Kann News contributed to this article.