by Melissa Koenig at Daily Mail
- US District Judge Reed O’Connor ordered Boeing to appear in court on January 26 to be arraigned on a 2021 felony charge
- Boeing had previously won immunity from criminal prosecution
- But O’Connor ruled in October that the victims of two Boeing 737 MAX crashes are legally considered ‘crime victims’
Executives from Boeing, one of the world’s largest plane manufacturers, will have to appear in court next week over two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX jets.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor on Thursday ordered a representative of the company to appear in court on January 26 to be arraigned on a 2021 felony charge, after families of the nearly 350 killed in the 2018 crash in Indonesia and the 2019 crash in Ethiopia objected to a plea deal.
Boeing had won immunity from criminal prosecution as part a $2.5billion Justice Department deferred prosecution agreement, and was instead charged with fraud conspiracy related to the 737 MAX’s flawed design.
But O’Connor, of Texas, ruled in October that people killed in the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes are legally considered ‘crime victims,’ and family members had urged him to require Boeing to be legally arraigned on the felony charge.
Those family members will now be able to speak at the hearing next week…
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