In an aerial view, Boeing 737 Max fuselages are seen on railcars during an ongoing strike by Boeing factory workers on October 24, 2024 in Seattle, Washington.
David Ryder | Getty Images
A federal judge on Thursday rejected Boeing‘s plea deal tied to a criminal fraud charge stemming from fatal crashes of its 737 Max aircraft.
The court gave Boeing and the Justice Department 30 days to decide how to proceed.
In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by misleading regulators about its inclusion of a flight-control system on the Max that was later implicated in the two crashes — a Lion Air flight in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019. All 346 people on the flights were killed.
Boeing didn’t immediately comment.
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