Some seven years after Lion Air flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea in Indonesia shortly after take off, Boeing has made a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that will mean that the aircraft manufacturer will not face criminal prosecution for the crash that killed 189 people.
In court documents filed last Friday, Boeing agreed to a settlement of investment and compensation totaling $1.1 billion, some $445 million of which is to be paid to the families of the victims of both the Lion Air crash and the Ethiopian Airlines crash that occurred just five months later.
Both planes were 737 Max aircraft manufactured by Boeing, and had been fitted with a new flight maneuvering system known as MCAS. The rationale was that the MCAS system would make flying safer by detecting if planes were about to stall and forcing the nose of the aircraft down. However, Boeing had not informed either pilots or airlines about the new system, nor its potentially deadly faults.
In both crashes, sensors mounted on the exterior of the aircraft malfunctioned, incorrectly identifying a stall and forcing the planes towards the ground, as pilots desperately tried to override the MCAS system that they had not been trained to operate.
The Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes killed 346 people in total, and led to a series of “deals” with Boeing under which it paid various fines and compensation to victims’ families, including a $2.5 billion settlement in 2021.
However, after it was found that Boeing had misled the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) about the safety of its aircraft, possible criminal charges were discussed, with Boeing entering a plea deal in which it would plead guilty to federal fraud charges in 2024 – although the deal was subsequently rejected.
Now, the new deal has been announced that will allow Boeing to essentially pay its way out of any criminal sanctions, prompting the question of whether justice has been served.
What constitutes “justice” is highly subjective, depending on who is defining the term.
Hellbound and Down 