A United States federal judge has rejected Boeing’s agreement to plead guilty to fraud after two fatal crashes of its 737 Max passenger jets.
The plane giant is facing court for the two crashes, which occurred in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia over a five-month period, killing 346 people.
Judge Reed C O’Connor of the northern district of Texas, rejected its recent plea deal however, citing diversity and inclusion provisions as the reason for the rejection.
These provisions covered the selection of an independent monitor to audit the company’s compliance practices and under the deal would have seen the Department of Justice choose the monitor.
But Judge O'Connor wrote that diversity, equity and inclusion policies at the department left him "sceptical" of whether it would pick a monitor based on skill and not “ race-based considerations”.
Boeing and the DOJ now have just 30 days to update the court on how they plan to proceed in the case.
Relatives of the victims called the agreement a “sweetheart” deal that would have failed to adequately hold Boeing accountable for the deaths.