One of the few entities with the power and authority to hold Boeing accountable for its many fatal failures is attempting to give the company an absurdly light slap on the wrist.
The Department of Justice is reportedly planning to file criminal fraud charges against Boeing, the world’s most successful airplane manufacturer. The charges stem from the company’s failure to comply with a 2021 agreement with federal prosecutors that was supposed to insulate the company from charges related to two fatal crashes of its notorious 737 Max passenger jets.
The charges come just months after Boeing planes have been continually plagued by dangerous malfunctions, most notably in January when the emergency door on an Alaska Airlines jet abruptly flew off mid-flight, forcing an emergency landing.
But even as the DOJ attempts to file the criminal charges it did not pursue three years ago, it is still trying to pursue a sweetheart deal that will insulate the company and major government contractor from any real accountability.
In the coming days, Boeing will decide whether or not to plead guilty to the fraud charge. If the company elects to admit wrongdoing, the DOJ intends to make a mockery of the 346 victims of the company’s failures by leveling a pathetic $243.6 million fine and require the company to hire a corporate monitor for three years.
For a company worth more than $110 billion, this minuscule fine is nothing. It is an insult to the hundreds of people who died because of the company’s failures, and it does nothing to address the corporate culture of Boeing that has allowed shoddy manufacturing to endanger the lives of pilots, crews, and passengers all over the world.
Already, the families of Boeing’s victims are planning to object to the plea deal.
“The deal will not acknowledge, in any way, that Boeing’s crime killed 346 people,” attorney Paul Cassell told Bloomberg. “The families will strenuously object to this plea deal.”
The families that Cassell represents are urging the DOJ to issue a fine of $25 billion, a far heavier punishment that will force Boeing to reckon with its callous disregard for human life. But under the terms proposed by the families, the majority of the fine would be suspended if Boeing hired a corporate monitor and overhauled its safety systems so the culture of shoddy workmanship and cost cutting is purged from the company.
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If the reported plea deal is approved, the very integrity of Boeing’s airplane manufacturing is at stake. If the company gets nothing more than a light scolding from the DOJ, the government is sending a clear message that such corporations are beyond true accountability.
The DOJ must back off its sweetheart deal and force Boeing to take accountability for the lives it has cost. If the company continues on its current course, the millions of people that board Boeing jets each year will be left anxiously wondering if their plane will be the next one to fall out of the sky.