New York (AFP)

Boeing, officially accused on Thursday of misleading authorities during the 737 MAX approval process, admitted responsibility and agreed to pay more than $ 2.5 billion to settle certain lawsuits.

This resolution allows the manufacturer to dispel a little more the clouds that have gathered on its star aircraft after two accidents that killed 346 people.

Grounded for twenty months, it was only re-authorized to fly in certain countries at the end of 2020.

The aeronautic giant has agreed to pay the United States a criminal fine of 243.6 million, as well as 1.77 billion in compensation to the airlines that ordered the 737 MAX and 500 million for a fund intended to compensate relatives of the 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 the authorities and the company have reached allows "to hold 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 prepare pilot training for the aircraft about 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 deal, which formally accuses Boeing of conspiring to commit fraud, the group has agreed to continue to cooperate with authorities on 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.

The ministry will lift the lawsuits in three years if Boeing meets all of its obligations.

On the other hand, he did not consider it necessary to impose an independent inspector on the company.

- "We failed" -

Boeing chief executive David Calhoun said on Thursday that the deal was "the right thing to do."

This resolution "allows us to appropriately recognize that we have failed in our values ​​and our expectations," he stressed in a note to employees.

It "really reminds us of the importance of our obligation to be transparent towards regulators and the consequences our company may face if one of us does not meet these expectations," he added.

The group, which has already put money aside to deal with the consequences of the two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX, also said it spent a charge of $ 743.6 million in its accounts in connection with the announced financial penalties. Thursday.

With this agreement, the horizon brightens a little more for Boeing, which has suffered heavily from the 737 MAX crisis, its cash cow.

In December, Brazilian company Gol became the first in the world to return the Boeing 737 MAX to service on a smooth commercial flight between Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre.

Once again authorized to fly in the United States since mid-November, the 737 MAX also resumed service in this country under the colors of American Airlines at the very end of the year.

Difficulties remain however, the group having suffered numerous cancellations of orders from airlines jostled first by the long immobilization of the aircraft and then by the drop in air traffic observed since the start of the pandemic.

© 2021 AFP