Editor’s Note: Just returned from business travel so my blogging frequency should bump up again.
Boeing continues o provide legions of future business historians the fodder for hundreds of books and cautionary tales on how engineering can fall of a cliff once competency and merit are abandoned for the fashionable 21st century reboot of National Socialist identitarian totalitarianism in DEI nonsense.
A federal judge on Thursday rejected a deal that would have let Boeing plead guilty to a felony conspiracy charge and pay a fine for misleading U.S. regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed, killing 346 people.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas said that diversity, inclusion and equity or DEI policies in the government and at Boeing could result in race being a factor in picking an official to oversee Boeing’s compliance with the agreement.
The ruling creates uncertainty around criminal prosecution of the aerospace giant in connection with the development of its bestselling airline plane.
The judge gave Boeing and the Justice Department 30 days to tell him how they plan to proceed. They could negotiate a new plea agreement, or prosecutors could move to put the company on trial.
The vermin at Boeing have been stringing the victims’ families for years in court.
Many relatives of the passengers who died in the crashes, which took place off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, have spent years pushing for a public trial, the prosecution of former company officials, and more severe financial punishment for Boeing.
The bad news continues the chaos avalanche at Boeing.
When the Justice Department announced in 2021 that it had reached a settlement and would not prosecute Boeing for fraud, families of the victims were outraged. Judge O’Connor ruled last year that the Justice Department broke a victims-rights law by not telling relatives that it was negotiating with Boeing, but said he had no power to overturn the deal.
The 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement was due to expire in January, and it was widely expected that prosecutors would seek to permanently drop the matter. Just days before that, however, a door plug blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon.
That incident renewed concerns about manufacturing quality and safety at Boeing, and put the company under intense scrutiny by regulators and lawmakers.
The case is just one of many challenges facing Boeing, which has lost more than $23 billion since 2019 and fallen behind Airbus in selling and delivering new planes.
US judge rejects Boeing’s plea deal in a conspiracy case stemming from fatal plane crashes
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