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Despite concerns about public interest, a US court has granted the government's request to dismiss a criminal charge against Boeing related to two deadly 737 Max crashes. Judge Reed O'Connor explicitly stated his "disagreement" with the decision, though he found no sufficient legal grounds to deny it. This move effectively clears Boeing of a criminal charge it had previously agreed to plead guilty to, stemming from accusations of violating a crash-related settlement.
The dismissal had been opposed by some of the families of those killed in the accidents, who had sought to hold Boeing accountable at trial.
Lawyer Paul Cassell, who represents some of the families, said he intended to appeal against the ruling.
"We believe that the courts don't have to stand silently while an injustice is perpetrated," he said in a statement.
In his decision on Thursday, Mr O'Connor said the government's concerns about taking the charge to trial were "unserious"and he did not believe the new deal reached between the government and Boeing would "secure the necessary accountability to ensure the safety of the flying public".
But he said the government was presumed to be acting in "good faith" and he did not have the authority to override the request.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) defended its agreement, noting that it had met "extensively" with the crash victims' families, which had expressed "a broad set of views regarding the resolution".
The decision marks the latest twist in a long-running legal battle stemming from two major 737 Max accidents in late 2018 off Indonesia and in Ethiopia in early 2019, which killed 346 people.
The US subsequently charged Boeing with one count of criminal fraud conspiracy, accusing Boeing of deliberately concealing from regulators key information about its flight control software, which was implicated in the crashes.
The firm admitted to the allegations but avoided prosecution with a 2021 deal in which it paid $2.5bn in fines and compensation and pledged to improve safety standards and compliance programmes.
The case was reopened last year, after an incident in which an unused door fell off a 737 Max early in flight. The DOJ accused Boeing of having breached the terms of the original.
