Boeing plea deal over fatal Max crashes rejected

A Boeing plea deal intended to resolve a case related to two fatal crashes of its planes has been rejected by a US judge.
The plane maker agreed with the US government in July to plead guilty to one count of criminal fraud, face independent monitoring and pay a $243m (£191m) fine.
However, Judge Reed O’Connor struck down the agreement on Thursday, saying it undermined the court and that diversity requirements for hiring the monitor were “contradictory”.
Family members of the 346 people killed in the crashes welcomed the ruling, describing the plea deal as a “get-out-of-jail-free card for Boeing”.
The Department of Justice said it was reviewing the decision. Boeing did not immediately comment.
In his decision, Judge O’Connor said the government’s previous years of overseeing the firm had “failed”.
“At this point, the public interest requires the court to step in,” he wrote.
He said the proposed agreement did not require Boeing to comply with the monitor’s recommendations and gave the company a say in selecting a candidate.
Those issues had also been raised by some families of those killed on the flights, who had criticised it as a “sweetheart” arrangement that did not properly hold the firm to account for the deaths.
Judge O’Connor also focused on the deal’s requirements that race be considered when hiring the monitor, which he said would undermine confidence in the person hired.
“In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency,” he wrote.
“The parties’ DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] efforts only serve to undermine this confidence in the government and Boeing’s ethics and anti-fraud efforts.”