Boeingwillpay $2.5Bsettlement

Penalty stems from conspiracy charge related to 2 deadly crashes.

Thepenalty stems from criminal conspiracy charge related to two deadly737 Max crashes.

Boeing will pay $2.5 billion to settle a criminal conspiracy charge for misleading regulators about the safety of its 737Max aircraft, which suffered two deadly crashes shortly after entering airline service.

The Justice Department said Thursday that Boeing agreed to the settlement that includes moneyfor the crashvictims’ families, airline customers and a criminal fine.

Prosecutors said Boeing employees concealed important information about the plane fromthe Feder-alAviationAdministration, then covered up their actions.

“The misleading statements, half-truths, and omissions communicated by Boeing employees to the FAA impeded the government’s ability to ensure the safety of the flying public,” said Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. Attorney in Dallas.

“Boeing’s employees chose the path of profit over candor,” saidDavid Burns, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s criminal division.

Boeing began working on the Max in 2011 as answer to a new, more fuel-efficient model from Euro-pean rival Airbus. Boeing admitted in court filings that two of its technical pilot experts deceived the FAA about a flight-control system called the Maneuvering CharacteristicsAugmentation System, or MCAS, that could point a plane’s nose down if sensors indicated the plane might be in danger of an aerodynamic stall — that it might fall from the sky.

Boeing downplayed the significance of MCAS and didn’t mention it in airplane manuals. Most pilots didn’t know about it.

The first airlines began flying the 737Max in mid-2017. On Oct. 29, 2018, aMax operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air plunged into the Java Sea. The FAA let the Max keep flying, and on March 10, 2019, another Max operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed nearly straight down into a field. In all, 346 people were killed.

On both flights, MCASwas activated by a faulty reading from a single sensor. The systemrepeatedly pushed the planes’ noses down, and pilots were unable to regain control.

After the planeswere grounded worldwide, BoeingchangedMCAS so that it always uses two sensors, along with other changes to make the automated system less powerful and easier for pilots to over-ride.

InNovember, theFAAapproved Boeing’s changes, and several carriers including American Airlines have resumed using the planes.