Boeing selected an engineer and longtime aerospace industry executive as a demonstration of its commitment to correct course amid daunting legal and regulatory troubles, as victim’s families relentlessly press for Boeing to face criminal charges for two 737 Max crashes.
Boeing’s board of directors on July 31st named Robert K. “Kelly” Ortberg as their new president and CEO. Ortberg, who formerly led avionics supplier Rockwell Collins Inc., is being entrusted to steer Boeing through a turbulent new chapter for the avionics giant set to be marked by a felony criminal conviction and compliance monitoring.
Ortberg succeeds retiring CEO Dave Calhoun amid an intensifying corporate crisis following the deadly crash of Boeing’s 737 Max 8 flights Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019. The crashes ignited a storm of investigations, congressional hearings, and litigation.
Boeing’s troubles only intensified when on January 5th a midair door plug blowout occurred aboard a 737 Max 9 jet operated by Alaska Airlines. The shocking quality control and production lapses revealed at Boeing prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to step in with increased oversight.
Boeing is also dealing with a challenging legal front. The U.S. Department of Justice found in May that Boeing breached its obligations under a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement, subsequently leading to a new deal which still needs to be approved by the court. The deal would have Boeing plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and pay millions more in penalties, among other sanctions.
Image credit AP / National Transportation Safety Board via AP.
Crash victims’ families are urging U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, to reject the new plea agreement, which was filed on July 24, contending the “morally reprehensible” deal significantly discounts Boeing’s financial penalties and effectively exonerates Boeing’s then senior leadership from criminal responsibility. The families are particularly concerned with the binding nature of the plea agreement under Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure 11 (c)(1)(C). A C-plea deal is applied in an all-or-nothing fashion, meaning once the judge accepts a C-plea the judge is compelled to impose the sentence recommendation without any changes to the details.
Michael Wynne, criminal defense attorney and partner with Gregor, Wynne, Arney PLLC, spoke with LAW360, explaining that there can be benefits to a C-plea in a case with a corporate defendant. “It serves the purpose of achieving finality and provides it sooner for the corporate defendant and related stakeholders… it fosters judicial and administrative efficiency, and the litigation risks for both parties are mitigated because they are probably built into the settlement terms.”
Wynne said that when the government and the defendant present a C-plea, “the odds are extremely high that the court has already tacitly approved it, or the parties have every reason to expect the court will do so in short order.” Wynne added, “While the victims’ family members, God bless them, will have their due opportunity to be heard in court, the difficult fact is the parties most familiar with the facts and litigation challenges are, at the end of the day, the ones best suited to reach a resolution that allows everyone to move on.”
As the controversy and court battle wages on Boeing employees, customers, and passengers will be watching closely for signs that Boeing is committed to integrity and follows through on quality control and safety.
