(Bloomberg) -- A Texas federal judge reviewing Boeing Co.’s plea deal with US prosecutors over two fatal crashes asked for more information to determine whether he should approve it, including how a diversity and inclusion pledge would impact the choice of an outside monitor.
US District Judge Reed O’Connor of Fort Worth asked for the information no later than Oct. 25, according to a court filing Tuesday. The judge heard arguments Friday for and against the deal, which is opposed by some families of the crash victims.
O’Connor noted that families of crash victims strongly oppose allowing the government, rather than the court, to select a monitor with input from Boeing.
The judge said he wants the government to explain how the DEI provision in the agreement “furthers compliance and ethics efforts” and how it will use the provision in selecting a monitor. For Boeing, he asked that it explain how it might use DEI policies to exercise its right to veto a potential monitor candidate.
Under the agreement, Boeing would pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and invest even more in safety improvements. Families of some crash victims said the deal didn’t go far enough to hold Boeing accountable for the 346 fatalities.
The agreement allows Boeing to avoid a criminal trial after the US Justice Department determined that the company breached a 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement over the fatal crashes. The DOJ had concluded Boeing failed to meet a requirement of that accord to implement an effective compliance program to prevent and detect violations of US fraud laws.
Family members of crash victims have fought for years to get harsher penalties following the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March of 2019. Both crashes were linked to a flight control system that Boeing later admitted it deceived regulators about.
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