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Boeing plea deal over Max crashes rejected by judge | CNN Business

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a plea agreement between Boeing and the US government after the company said it would plead guilty to deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration ahead of two fatal 737 Max crashes.

The rejection by US District Court Judge Reed O’Connor citied his problems with the selection process for a independent monitor required in the plea deal to oversee safety and quality improvement at Boeing. The plane started service in 2017, but the two fatal crashes – in October 2018 and March of 2019 – led to a 20-month grounding of the jets, and investigations revealed a design flaw in its autopilot system. “Yet in the end… (DOJ officials have) not found the one thing that underlies the families’ most passionate objections to the proposed resolution: evidence that could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Boeing’s fraud caused the deaths of their loved ones,” said the Justice Department’s filing in support of the plea agreement.

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