There’s a famous movie quote from Mel Brooks in The History of the World Part I, in which he proudly (or smugly) states: “It’s good to be the king”. For Boeing, it’s good to be the king of American commercial aviation (and defence). Despite all the people who have died on Boeing planes in recent years, the US government is dropping any criminal prosecution of the company, making it “too big to fail” like the US investment banks that caused the Great Recession. Boeing seemed on its way to recovering from those MAX crashes in Africa and Indonesia, but then an Air India Dreamliner crashed on take-off, killing more than 240 people on the plane and others on the ground in India.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming Boeing for the Air India crash — yet. It’s simply too soon to know all the problems that led to the tragedy. And Boeing’s new leadership has been making all the right noises about getting its house in order.
Boeing did the right thing in the wake of the Air India disaster and maintained a low profile at the Paris Airshow, went silent on orders, etc. Air India, for its part though, committed an own goal when it was pointed out on social media that CEO Campbell Wilson appeared to have at least partially plagiarised his statement of sympathy from a statement given by Robert Isom, CEO of American Airlines, when that carrier suffered a deadly crash in Washington, D.C.
Before the Air India crash, Boeing looked set to have its corporate head above water. It reported over 300 orders between May and June, fuelled partly by (convicted felon) Donald Trump’s state visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, according to Endau Analytics. Qatar Airways put in an order of up to 210 planes, which included 130 Boeing 787s — the “largest order for 787 Dreamliners”, according to Boeing. Qatar also agreed to buy 30 new 777-9 jets with options for 50 additional aircraft.
And as I mentioned above, King Boeing caught a huge break when the US Department of Justice (DOJ) decided not to criminally prosecute Boeing, despite the fact that the company had already pleaded guilty to fraud.
Lawyers for the families of the MAX crashes filed a motion in mid-June asking a US federal court judge to reject the DOJ agreement it reached with Boeing not to prosecute the aircraft manufacturer for criminal fraud. The 15 families of dead passengers are objecting to the non-prosecution agreement (NPA) and argue that the DOJ is violating the judicial review provisions of the federal rules by pre-emptively agreeing not to prosecute Boeing.
“The DOJ filed a motion to dismiss the criminal fraud matter against Boeing, but, instead, did an about-face and told the families it filed an NPA in federal district court in Texas that it does not intend to proceed with a criminal fraud trial against the aircraft manufacturer regarding two crashes of the 737 MAX8 aircraft six years ago killing 346 people,” the lawyers wrote. They added: “Today’s motion, filed by the families argues, in part, that the government and Boeing have already decided that they won’t even wait for the court’s ruling on the pending dismissal motion. In an extraordinary provision in the non-prosecution agreement connected to the motion to dismiss, the government has contractually obligated itself not to further prosecute Boeing, regardless of how the court rules. This unprecedented effort to short-circuit (the) judicial review requirement should lead the court to void that provision as contrary to public policy and deny the motion to dismiss.”
“The proposed plea deal is not only deceptive but morally reprehensible because it fails to hold Boeing accountable for killing 346 people,” said lawyer Paul Cassell, who represents the families. “A judge can reject a dismissal that is not in the public interest, and this misleading and unfair deal is clearly against the public interest. The families ask (the judge) to use his recognised authority to reject this inappropriate deal and airbrushed factual account of what happened.”
We all know what happened though. Boeing skirted the rules when it came to its MCAS system, and two MAX planes crashed, killing hundreds of people. But because Boeing is one side of the duopoly that rules the global commercial aviation market and because it employs thousands of Americans (and because the current US administration is just plain nuts), Boeing will shell out some cash to the victims’ families but no single individual will be held accountable or face jail time.
So, just like the big banks that caused the Great Recession, when no one was held accountable, it looks like Boeing is getting the same treatment. I guess Mel Brooks was right. It is good to be the king.
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