Boeing and the family members of the victims who were killed in the infamous 2018 and 2019 Boeing 737 Max crashes will face off on Friday, in a district court hearing that marks the latest escalation of a reputation and quality control crisis that has tainted the aerospace giant. 

The two crashes, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, resulted in the deaths of 346 people. Public trust in Boeing has plummeted in the years since, and the company faced renewed scrutiny after a door plug blew off of a 737 Max flown by Alaska Airlines in January. The sudden deaths of two outspoken Boeing whistleblowers earlier this year — and the malfunctioning Boeing spacecraft that has left two NASA astronauts stranded in space for months — has only put the company further in the national spotlight. 

Friday’s hearing, overseen by a federal judge, Reed O’Connor, at the Northern District of Texas, will determine the fate of a plea deal agreed upon by the Justice Department and Boeing earlier this year, in which Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the government. The aerospace manufacturer became subject to criminal prosecution earlier this year after the Justice Department in May found that Boeing had violated an earlier 2021 agreement surrounding the crashes. 

Now, under the proposed plea deal, Boeing has agreed to invest $455 million into quality and safety programs, retain an independent compliance monitor while it’s on probation for three years, and pay a fine of at least $243.6 million. 

That plea deal has sparked outrage among family members of some of the passengers, who have called it a “sweetheart” deal, an “abomination,” and a mere “slap on the wrist” for Boeing. 

“The families who lost loved ones in the 737 MAX crashes deserve far more than the inadequate, superficial deal struck between Boeing and the Department of Justice,” an attorney representing the victim’s families, Erin Applebaum, tells the Sun. “The proposed plea deal completely fails to deliver meaningful justice for the 346 lives lost and will do nothing to change the ongoing safety and quality failures at Boeing that continue to endanger lives.”

Calling for “harsher penalties and meaningful reforms” to prevent future tragedies like the two deadly crashes, she says that the hearing will be an extremely important one. 

“Friday’s hearing is a crucial step toward holding Boeing fully accountable, and we urge Judge O’Connor to listen carefully to the voices of the families as he considers whether to accept this plea deal,” she says. “Their losses must not be repeated.”

In a court filing, the families of the crash victims say the Justice Department and Boeing didn’t give the families a chance to confer on the plea deal. 

In a separate court filing from family members, they list a number of apparent conflicts of interest between Boeing and the federal government, including the high volume of business between them and that Boeing has been in the top five government contractors for years

“It is not surprising that the proposed agreement weakly charges Boeing with conspiracy to defraud the government,” the filing reads. “To actually charge Boeing and its senior management with the actual crimes committed, including the homicide of 346 passengers, would make any explanation of ongoing business dealings difficult and uncomfortable, particularly in an election year.”

The families also call out the “absurdity of the proposed fine,” arguing that the losses from the crash call for a much more significant penalty. 

The Justice Department, in response to the family members, has defended the plea agreement as being a “strong and significant resolution that holds Boeing accountable and serves the public interest” as well as “fair and just.” The government said that while it is able to prove the fraud charge beyond a reasonable doubt, that it “cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Boeing’s fraud directly and proximately caused the 737 MAX plane crashes” and the deaths. 

Boeing, in its response, says that while it “profoundly regrets the accidents and the unspeakable losses” that the family members have suffered, their objections to the plea agreement shouldn’t be accepted by the court because they are not “parties, nor are they the prosecutor” in the case. 

Boeing, when reached by the Sun, declined to comment. The Sun has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.