The Justice Department defended its settlement with Boeing over two crashes of the 737 Max planes in 2018 and 2019, arguing it is a “strong and significant” resolution to the saga.
Families of the victims of the two crashes, which resulted in the deaths of 346 people, had offered their objections to the plea deal — which would see Boeing plead guilty to the charges levied by the DOJ and pay a $243.6 million fine along with a $455 million investment into improving its compliance and safety programs. In a filing last month, a group of the families accused the Justice Department of “treating Boeing’s deadly crime as another run-of-the-mill corporate compliance problem,” with its proposed settlement.
The DOJ contended that its agreement with the plea deal would serve “the public interest” and is due to limitations of what the Justice Department believes it can prove in…