Boeing pleads guilty to fraud to avoid court

Washington [US], July 9: US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has pleaded guilty to defrauding the US government to avoid a court case concerning two fatal crashes involving the 737 Max aircraft, according to a document from the US Department of Justice for a court in Texas.
The deal, which was agreed late Sunday evening, means the company must pay a multi-million-dollar fine and will also be monitored by a government watchdog. The accidents in October 2018 and March 2019 claimed the lives of 346 people.
At the time, Boeing avoided prosecution by promising to implement a compliance and ethics programme. The company also paid a fine of $243.6 million. The Department of Justice decided in May that Boeing was in breach of the conditions of the deal at the time.
New investigation after dramatic incident in January when a fuselage fragment of a virtually new Boeing aircraft broke off during a climb. Nobody was injured in the incident but it was only due to luck that the seats next to the hole in the fuselage were not occupied at the time. (DPA)
Source: Qatar Tribune