US judge rejects Boeing plea deal in fatal crashes

A U.S. federal judge on Thursday rejected Boeing's agreement to plead guilty to fraud in the wake of two fatal 737 MAX crashes, faulting a diversity and inclusion provision in the deal regarding the selection of an independent monitor to audit the planemaker's compliance practices.

Boeing and the Justice Department now have 30 days to update the court on how they plan to proceed in the case, Judge Reed C. O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas ordered.

Spokespeople for Boeing and DOJ did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Relatives of the victims of the two 737 MAX crashes, which occurred in 2018 and 2019 and killed 346 people, have called the agreement a "sweetheart" deal that failed to adequately hold Boeing accountable for the deaths of their loved ones.

The two plane crashes occurred in Indonesia and Ethiopia over a five-month period.

The judge's objections center on the government's diversity and inclusion policy covering the selection of an independent monitor to oversee Boeing's compliance with the agreement for three years.

"The plea agreement requires the parties to consider race when hiring the independent monitor," O'Connor wrote in his decision. "In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency."