The nauseating saga of the Boeing 737 Max two deadly crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 is a perfect example of how American corporations are barely regulated and even when their products cause hundreds of deaths, there is essentially zero punishment. There are thousands of young Black men in American prisons who wish the American criminal justice system was as kind and easy-going and friendly and lovey-dovey to them as it was for Boeing’s CEO and Board of Directors.
The gist of what happened is as follows. Two plane crashes, 350 dead, mostly Indonesians and Egyptians (a key fact). The cause is bad design, bad documentation, and pathetically bad regulation (the FAA is a Boeing subsidiary). Note that after the first crash, Boeing’s CEO and Board decided not to ground the 737 Max. They said publicly that the Indonesian pilots probably weren’t as good as western trained pilots so probably caused the crash themselves. Five months later in October 2019 and another 157 people died when Ethiopian airlines flight 302 flew headfirst straight down at high speed into the ground shortly after takeoff as a direct result of The 737 max design flaw.
OK, what price did Boeing pay?
- The government reached a “Deferred Prosecution Agreement” with Boeing in January, in which the company agreed to pay $2.5 billion. The company acknowledged fraud and criminal misconduct but the board and senior executives were explicitly exonerated.
- Today, the Justice Department indicted Mark Forkner, Boeing’s former chief technical pilot on the 737 MAX program, charging him with fraud with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for lying to the FCC.
That’s it. A $2.5B fine and one lower level employee thrown under the bus. A $2.5B fine for a $130B market cap company is a mosquito bite. If it had been 350 dead Americans instead of Indonesians and Ethiopians, does anyone think the result might’ve been a little different?
Meanwhile…
- In June, the lead Justice Dept attorney in the Boeing settlement goes to work for Kirkland and Ellis, the law firm who negotiated the settlement on behalf of Boeing and Boeing’s primary criminal counsel.
- Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s former CEO, left the company in January with $80 million in pay and benefits. This compares to the $50 million set aside for families of the crash victims.
What is most disgusting about this whole thing is how completely unsurprising it is. Boeing isn’t a one off, it’s just one more example of how American corporations act with almost total impunity.