Boeing’s Failure to Implement Safety Improvements After the Two Overseas Max Crashs: A Case Study of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282

Boeing promised to make safety changes after the two overseas Max crashes, and they had an earlier agreement with the DOJ. But prosecutors say Boeing did not hold up its end of the deal. The agreement was broken in May by Boeing when it failed to implement a compliance and ethics program.

The letter that came just a few months after the plane blew off its wing was from the same person that sent the original letter. Boeing’s operations were under renewed scrutiny after the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.

Federal prosecutors met with the family of the victims several times and they pressed for more penalties for the Boeing. Some families expressed their opposition to any plea agreement and terms of the plea offer, according to the DOJ court filing.

The two crashes, which happened in 2018 and 2019, killed more than 300 people. The planes malfunctioned because of software that was intended to correct for a design flaw — and that software, called MCAS, relied on just a single external sensor for its data. However, when Boeing launched the 737 Max, it didn’t tell the Federal Aviation Administration, airlines, or pilots about MCAS in order to skirt time-consuming safety regulations. When the two flights went down, the pilots were actively fighting against MCAS — and likely did not even know the software existed.