STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Boeing will plead guilty to criminal fraud as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. That's according to an agreement announced late last night by the Justice Department.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Prosecutors say Boeing deceived federal regulators about the safety of 2737 Max 8 Jets. These are the planes that crashed a few years ago, killing 346 people.
INSKEEP: NPR transportation correspondent Joel Rose was up late reading the court filing, and is now up early for us. Joel, good morning.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK, from what you've read, what is Boeing agreeing to?
ROSE: The Justice Department says Boeing will plead guilty to committing fraud by misleading regulators about the safety of those 2737 Max 8 planes and the flawed flight control system that led to those two crashes back in 2018 and 2019. Under this plea deal, Boeing will pay a fine of more than $240,000,000 and has agreed to spend upwards of 450 million on compliance and safety programs going forward. Boeing would also be under formal probation for three more years. Now, if all of this sounds familiar, it should. Boeing and prosecutors reached a similar agreement back in 2021, known as a deferred prosecution agreement.
INSKEEP: OK. Apparently, it was really deferred. What happened that earlier deal?
ROSE: Yeah. Boeing agreed to pay a similar fine and it promised to make big changes around safety and compliance. In exchange, the Justice Department agreed not to prosecute the company. But the Department of Justice now says Boeing did not hold up its end to that deal and essentially gave the company a choice of taking this plea deal or fighting the felony charge in court. There are some key differences this time around. For one, Boeing has agreed to plead guilty. That didn't happen last time. Also this time, Boeing and the DOJ have agreed that there will be an independent monitor to make sure that the company is complying for a period of three years. And under the proposal, that monitor will be appointed by the Justice Department with input from Boeing.
INSKEEP: There must be thousands of people interested in this case - not just people at Boeing, but the relatives of the hundreds of people killed in those crashes. How are people responding?
ROSE: Yeah, the family members of the crash victims hate this deal. They say this is once again a sweetheart deal for Boeing, just like that earlier agreement, and that no other criminal defendant would get a friendly offer like this from the government. Family members were hoping to see even bigger fines, as well as personal accountability for Boeing's leaders. Lawyers for those family members are already urging a federal judge to reject this plea deal. They also want the judge to appoint his own monitor. They say Boeing should not be involved in selecting that monitor, because the families argue that's exactly the kind of self-regulation that led to the two crashes in the first place.
INSKEEP: When you say that they want the judge to do this or that, I guess that means the judge still has to sign off on this.
ROSE: That's right. The Justice Department says the formal agreement will be filed with the court within days. The judge could accept it or reject it. There could be a hearing on that in Texas as soon as this month. You know, it's important to note this deal only covers events leading up to those Max crashes in 2018 and 2019. It does not say anything about the door plug panel that blew out of an almost-new Boeing 737 Max 9 jet back in January of this year in midair. Boeing is still under enormous scrutiny for its quality control and manufacturing processes because of that incident, including a push for tougher regulation from the FAA, and federal law enforcement is looking separately at that incident as well.
INSKEEP: Joel, thanks so much.
ROSE: You're welcome, Steve.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Joel Rose.
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