A lawyer representing victims of two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes has told the BBC the US government is preparing to offer the planemaker a “sweetheart plea deal”.
Paul Cassell, who said he got the information “directly from the Department of Justice,” added that the deal includes a small fine, three years' probation and independent safety audits.
Boeing did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment, while the Department of Justice (DoJ) declined to issue a statement.
It comes as Boeing announced it had reached a deal to acquire aerospace supplier Spirit AeroSystems – a move the company said would improve quality and safety.
In January, Spirit damaged the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 plane, causing a tire blowout during the flight. This led to major concerns about standards at Boeing.
Last month, US prosecutors have recommended that the DoJ bring criminal charges against the aircraft manufacturer.
That was after the U.S. Justice Department said Boeing violated a 2021 settlement related to the crashes that killed 346 people.
“The memory of the 346 innocent people killed by Boeing demands greater justice than this,” Cassell said, adding that the “families will vigorously object to this plea agreement.”
The plane crashes, both involving Boeing 737 Max aircraft, occurred within six months of each other.
The crash involving Indonesian Lion Air occurred in October 2018, followed by an Ethiopia Airlines flight in March 2019.
Both crashes were related to faulty flight control systems.
a letter sent last month Mr Cassell revealed to the DoJ that the families had demanded prosecution of Boeing's top executives at the time of the crashes and a $24.8 billion (£19.6 billion) fine for “the deadliest corporate crime in US history”.
The Justice Department has until July 7 to decide whether to revive criminal fraud charges filed against Boeing in 2021.
The allegation has been dormant since the company agreed in a settlement that it misled aviation safety regulators about aspects of the 737 Max and promised to create a new compliance system to detect and prevent further fraud.
Boeing said in the 2021 agreement that it would pay a $2.5 billion settlement and prosecutors agreed to ask the court to drop the criminal charges after three years if the company abides by certain provisions of the deferred prosecution agreement.
But in May, the DoJ said Boeing had breached the deal, stating that it had failed “to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and respond to violations of U.S. fraud laws in its operations.” to trace”.
Earlier this year, Boeing was again in the spotlight, along with former subsidiary Spirit AeroSystems, when a door panel fell off a new 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight.
According to investigators, the door was originally installed by Spirit, the airline that Boeing is now buying back in a deal worth a total of $8.3 billion, including debt.
In a separate announcement, Boeing's European archrival Airbus, which is also a major Spirit customer, said it will take control of four Spirit factories in the United States, Northern Ireland, France and Morocco.
