Sep. 29—A headline-making judge and Houston native who has long bit back at Boeing placed another hurdle in the Virginia aircraft manufacturer's way last week. According to reports, federal judge Reed O'Connor has ordered a hearing for Oct. 11 in Fort Worth over Boeing's pending plea deal in connection with two deadly aircraft incidents.
Lion Air Flight 610, traveling domestically in Indonesia, crashed in the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff on Oct. 29, 2018, killing all 189 people on board. Less than six months later, on March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.
Both planes were Boeing 737 Max 8 jets. In the aftermath of the incidents, Boeing admitted that that there were issues with the 737 Max's flight-control system, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Federal prosecutors said that Boeing employees deceived federal regulators about training requirements for the 737 Max; specifically, that pilots may not have needed to master MCAS to receive certification.
" Boeing's employees chose the path of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerning the operation of its 737 Max airplane and engaging in an effort to cover up their deception," David Burns, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division, said in 2021. Then, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion—including to victims' families and airline customers—to settle the findings leveled by the Justice Department.
The government said at the time, that if Boeing followed through with the settlement within three years, it would drop a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. But in May, the AP reported that Texas-based federal court judge Glenn Leon said Boeing violated the settlement terms by not making "promised changes to detect and prevent violations of federal anti-fraud laws."
Boeing still seemed to get out of that pickle, agreeing in July to plead guilty to criminal fraud conspiracy and pay $243.6 million. But it still had to be approved by a federal judge—in this case, O'Connor, who did not sign off on the deal last week. Instead, there will be another hearing.
Houston native and University of Houston graduate O'Connor has served as a district judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas since 2007. O'Connor is known to work in favor of Republican policies, and most famously in 2018 ruled that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional (his decision was later rendered moot by the U.S. Supreme Court).
O'Connor has also been part of the Boeing proceedings for years. In 2022 he ruled that Boeing should be suspect to criminal prosecution, agreeing with some of the victims' family members who said the aircraft manufacturer and government ensured in secret to avoid trial.
"In sum, but for Boeing's criminal conspiracy to defraud the ( Federal Aviation Administration), 346 people would not have lost their lives in the crashes," ruled O'Connor.
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