US justice department says Boeing violated $2.5bn settlement agreement

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Boeing has breached its 2021 $2.5bn settlement agreement that allowed the airframe manufacturer to avoid criminal prosecution following fatal crashes on a Lion Air flight in 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in 2019 on 737 MAX aircraft that killed a total of 346 people. The DOJ has until July 7, 2024, to decide whether it will pursue charges against Boeing. The DOJ had said in a court filing that the US aircraft manufacturer had failed to ensure a compliance and ethics program was put in place and enforced to ensure violations of US fraud laws throughout its operations were prevented and detected. Boeing had avoided the fraud charge where federal regulators were reportedly misled, resulting in the two 737 aircraft to be approved. Boeing's breach of its obligations had apparently been uncovered as the continued Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation continues to unfold, highlighting the manufacturer's safety and quality issues. The investigation began after the Flight 1282 accident where a door plug blew out shortly after take-off on the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 aircraft on January 5, 2024. Reuters reported that the 2021 settlement agreement was set to expire only two days later. The DOJ added that it has ""separately notified the victims and the airline customers"" of the breach determination and that it has scheduled a conferral session with the victims for May 31, 2024. The US government had previously conducted a conferral session on April 24, 2024, to discuss whether Boeing had breached the settlement agreement. After receiving written notice of the breach, Boeing has thirty days to respond to the DOJ to ""explain the nature and circumstances of such breach, as well as the actions Boeing has taken to address and remediate the situation,"" the court document read. It added that the US will consider the explanation before it decides whether to ""pursue prosecution of Boeing."" Boeing confirmed that it had received communication from the DOJ regarding its alleged breach of the settlement agreement. A spokesperson said: ""We have honoured the terms of that agreement, and look forward to the opportunity to respond to the [DOJ] on this issue. As we do so, we will engage with the [DOJ] with the utmost transparency, as we have throughout the entire term of the agreement, including in response to their questions following the Alaska Airlines 1282 accident."" Boeing will have until June 13, 2024, to respond.