The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on May 23, 2025, that it has reached an agreement with Boeing, avoiding criminal prosecution relating to two fatal crashes involving its 737 MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019.
Under the non-prosecution agreement (NPA), Boeing admitted to conspiring to obstruct and impede the lawful operation of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aircraft Evaluation Group.
The agreement requires Boeing to pay or invest over $1.1 billion, including a criminal monetary penalty of $487.2 million, the statutory maximum fine, partially offset by a previously paid $243.6 million penalty from a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA).
Additionally, Boeing will allocate $444.5 million to a Crash-Victims Beneficiaries Fund, complementing the $500 million previously committed under the earlier agreement. Another $455 million will be invested in enhancing Boeing’s compliance, safety, and quality programs.
Victims’ families and legal representatives expressed mixed reactions to the settlement. According to DOJ statements, the relatives and lawyers representing over 110 victims indicated either support or no objection to avoiding trial.
However, several other families vehemently opposed the settlement, expressing their outrage and disappointment at Boeing’s escape from direct accountability.
“I am absolutely stunned by the DOJ’s decision to grant Boeing an NPA despite all the evidence we have provided showing Boeing’s turpitude and repeated lies before the first crash, between the two crashes, and for more than six years since,” commented Catherine Berthet, who lost her daughter in the second crash in Ethiopia in 2019. “However, I have total confidence in the wisdom and sagacity of Judge O’Connor, who has always shown intelligence, and who called these crashes ‘the biggest corporate crime in the United States history,’ to act in the public interest and in the interest of safety, as he has always done.”
“This special deal for Boeing is an outrageous injustice to victims & their families whose losses resulted from Boeing’s unforgivable failures,” Senator Richard Blumenthal stated. “The crashes were directly due to Boeing’s flawed design & deliberate concealment. After repeatedly rebuffing responsibility & lying, Boeing will now permanently escape accountability. Victims, families, & the flying public deserve better. They deserve justice, not this sham.”
Before the settlement was officially announced, Erin Applebaum, a partner at Kreindler Aviation, representing 34 families of victims from the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 crash, described a potential NPA as a “backroom deal dressed up as a legal proceeding,” further cautioning that it “sends a dangerous message: In America, the rich and powerful can buy their way out of accountability.”
The DOJ indicated that the written agreement will be finalized shortly, after which it intends to formally move to dismiss the pending criminal charges against Boeing. The settlement must still be approved by Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas. If the judge accepts the agreement and grants the dismissal, it would mark the conclusion of a long-running legal battle over Boeing’s criminal liability in the crashes. Civil lawsuits filed by victims’ families, however, will continue to proceed.
