Following the hearing, Boeing’s settlement is now in the hands of a Texas judge

The fate of Boeing’s settlement with U.S. prosecutors over two catastrophic 737 Max crashes now rests with a federal judge, after lawyers for the embattled planemaker, the government and family members of the victims presented their cases before him.

“You have given me much food for thought, and I will receive a ruling as quickly as possible,” U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor said at the end of a sometimes intense, 2 1/2-hour hearing in Fort Worth. on Friday, in the presence of several family members.

Families then gathered outside and put up posters with photos of the victims, some with images of their lost loved ones around their necks.

If O’Connor approves the pact, Boeing will plead guilty to criminal conspiracy but avoid trial after the Justice Department determined the company violated an agreement to defer prosecution through 2021 over the crashes. The United States concluded that Boeing had failed to meet the agreement’s requirement to implement an effective compliance program designed to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws.

Under the settlement, Boeing will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in financial penalties and invest $455 million in safety improvements. Sean Tonolli, a Justice Department lawyer, said the penalties represent “the maximum the government could achieve if the case went to trial and Boeing was convicted.” Tonolli said that in a case the government has charged and can prove, “we believe this settlement is fair and equitable, and we urge the court to accept it.”

Family members have fought for years for tougher penalties following the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019. Both crashes were linked to a flight control system that Boeing later admitted deceived regulators.

In court on Friday, the family members’ attorney, Paul Cassell, presented reasons why he believed the court should reject the “botched settlement.” He said the agreement “is based on an exaggerated set of facts and conceals the truth about this case” – that “346 people died because of Boeing’s lies.”

Mark Filip, a lawyer for Boeing, confirmed that the company would plead guilty and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and expenses aimed at strengthening compliance and safety programs. He echoed the Justice Department’s words, saying the proposal represents “the most serious provable case the department can bring.”

If the deal is approved by the court, Filip said, the company will be under Justice Department supervision for at least six years.

At the end of the hearing, the judge asked the government and Boeing a question about the parameters of the settlement, which limits the court’s discretion in setting specific penalties for the company. Cassell criticized the United States for presenting the judge with an agreement that limits the court from making changes.

Ben Hatch, a lawyer for Boeing, said the deal would provide clarity for the Defense Department and other government agencies that work with the company.

“For many, many stakeholders, decision certainty is of great value,” he said.

O’Connor also pressed Justice Department’s Tonolli on why the settlement included diversity, equity and inclusion criteria in selecting a monitor for Boeing, at one point asking him to define diversity. Boeing’s attorney, Hatch, later said the company was confident the monitoring decision would be made based on the candidates’ merits.

Cassell told the judge that the government had already shown it could not adequately hold Boeing liable because the planemaker had violated the terms of its prior agreement, a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement. He asked O’Connor to reject the agreement and take the case to court or giving the parties a chance to revise the settlement to address family members’ concerns.

“If there was ever a case where it shouldn’t be business as usual, this was it,” Cassell said.