Criminal case against Boeing over deadly 737 Max plane crashes is dismissed by a US judge

FILE - A Boeing 737 Max jet prepares to land at Boeing Field following a test flight in Seattle, Sept. 30, 2020. Photo by Elaine Thompson /AP

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A federal judge in Texas has agreed to dismiss a criminal conspiracy charge against Boeing in connection with two 737 Max jetliner crashes that killed 346 people.

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In a written decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor approved the federal government’s request to dismiss its case against Boeing as part of a deal that requires the aircraft maker to pay or invest an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for the crash victims’ families, and internal safety and quality measures.

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The ruling came after an emotional hearing in early September when relatives of some of the victims urged O’Connor to reject the deal and instead appoint a special prosecutor to take over the case.

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All passengers and crew members died when the planes went down off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019. Prosecutors had alleged that Boeing deceived government regulators about a flight-control system that was later implicated in the fatal flights.

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The long-running case has taken many twists and turns since the Justice Department first charged the American aerospace company in January 2021 with defrauding the U.S. government, including a failed deal that would have required Boeing to plead guilty. That plea agreement fell through after O’Connor did not approve it.

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Airlines began flying the Max in 2017. After the Ethiopia crash, the planes were grounded worldwide for 20 months while the company redesigned the flight-control software.

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The Justice Department had said it believed the latest agreement served the public interest more effectively than taking the case to trial and risking a jury verdict that might spare the company further punishment. It also said the families of 110 crash victims either support resolving the case before it reaches trial or did not oppose the deal.

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Meanwhile, more than a dozen relatives spoke at the Sept. 3 hearing, some of whom traveled to Texas from as far as Europe and Africa. They are among nearly 100 families who opposed the agreement.

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Catherine Berthet, who traveled from France, had asked the judge to send the case to trial.

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“Do not allow Boeing to buy its freedom,” she said. Her daughter, Camille Geoffroy, died when a 737 Max crashed shortly after takeoff from Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

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The yearslong case centers around a software system that Boeing developed for the 737 Max, which began flying in 2017.

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In both of the deadly crashes, that software pitched the nose of the plane down repeatedly based on faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots flying for Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines were unable to regain control. After the Ethiopia crash, the planes were grounded worldwide for 20 months.

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Investigators found that Boeing did not inform key Federal Aviation Administration personnel about changes it had made to the software before regulators set pilot training requirements for the Max and certified the airliner for flight.

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Associated Press writer Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.

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