New York (AFP)
US authorities on Thursday officially accused Boeing of conspiracy to commit fraud, for failing to provide all the necessary information during the approval process of the 737 MAX, two of which crashed in flight.
The aeronautics giant has agreed to pay more than $ 2.5 billion to settle certain lawsuits - including a criminal fine of 243.6 million, 1.77 billion in compensation to the airlines that ordered the 737 MAX and 500 million for a fund intended to compensate the relatives of the 346 victims of the accidents of Lion Air in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019.
"Boeing employees preferred profit over franchise by withholding important information about the use of its 737 MAX aircraft from the FAA (United States Aviation Authority) and by trying to cover up their deception," Justice Department official David Burns denounced in a statement.
The deal between the authorities and the company "holds Boeing accountable for the criminal misconduct of its employees, addresses the issue of the financial impact on Boeing's airline customers and hopefully will provide some form of reparation to the families and relatives of the victims of the accident, ”he added.
Boeing, the statement said, admitted that two of its employees had misled a group within the FAA to prepress pilot training on the MCAS flight software, implicated in the two accidents.
The documents subsequently issued by the Aviation Agency therefore did not contain essential information about this software, which was therefore not included in the pilot manuals and training documents.
Under the terms of the agreement, Boeing has agreed to continue to cooperate with the authorities for all ongoing or future investigations.
The manufacturer has also undertaken to report to the authorities any example or suspicion of fraud committed by one of its employees.
On the other hand, the ministry did not consider it necessary to impose an independent inspector on the company.
The 737 MAX had been grounded for twenty months after the second accident in March 2019. It was cleared to fly again in November in the United States and then in other countries.
© 2021 AFP