The US Department of Justice announced on Thursday that it has slammed Boeing with a fine of $2.5 billion to settle the charges of the 737 MAX defraud case. 

Boeing had secured an agreement related to the company’s declarations to the regulators about the issues with the 737 MAX, which was suspended from use for almost two years after it suffered two crashes. 

Boeing was accused of prioritising “profit over candor” and being involved in “cover-ups and half-truths” by the prosecutors on the case. 

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The US Department of Justice accused Boeing of concealing vital information from Federal Aviation Administration about the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which was the primary reason for the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air flight crashes. The crashes claimed 346 lives combined. 

The burial of information meant that the FAA had no mention of the MCAS in the final report it produced while certifying 737 MAX, which meant that it was not included in the pilot training material or the issued manuals. 

After the Lion Air crash in October 2018, FAA “learned for the first time” key details about the MCAS “that Boeing concealed from FAA,” DOJ said.

And two pilots at Boeing “continued misleading others — including at Boeing and the FAA — about their prior knowledge of the change to MCAS,” DOJ said.

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The 737 MAX was temporarily put out of commission in March 2019 after the second devastating crash. 

The FAA and Boeing have been under the scanners after they failed to ground the 737 MAX after the first crash itself. 

Boeing’s cooperation “was delayed and only began after the first six months of the Fraud Section’s investigation, during which time Boeing’s response frustrated the Fraud Section’s investigation,” the DOJ said.