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Boeing has until July 5 to decide whether to fight or plead guilty to the lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for its alleged violation of a 2021 agreement that shielded it from criminal charges.

Politico reported late Wednesday (July 3) that either option would taint its reputation in the aviation industry and jeopardize its already off-nominal space business due to the extended stay of its Starliner capsule and its two-astronaut crew aboard the International Space Station.

How Boeing got into this situation could be traced back to the late 2010s, and specifically in two airline crashes that killed hundreds of passengers and aircrew.

Boeing 737 MAX 9 Crashes

All of the company's woes began in 2018, when a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 9 scheduled to fly from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang in Indonesia crashed off the coast of Java less than 15 minutes after takeoff, killing all 181 passengers and eight crew on board.

An Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 9 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi also suffered a similar post-takeoff issue a year later, in 2019, killing all 157 people on board, including some United Nations staffers.

Both flights resulted in the first grounding of the 737 fleet. Prior to this, Boeing also had problems developing its 787 Dreamliner, which has been plagued by issues ever since.

Since then, the families of the victims have called for justice over both incidents, to no significant result.

Faulty Planes, Space Capsule

It is understood that a settlement was reached between the Justice Department and Boeing, which stipulated that the latter should address the issue seriously and assure the public that such incidents would not happen again in exchange for being shielded from criminal prosecution.

However, in January this year, another 737 MAX 9, this time from Alaska Airlines, suffered a mid-air blowout after one of its emergency exit doors opened due to a faulty door plug.

In February, Spirit AeroSystems, one of Boeing's suppliers, revealed that they discovered two holes on some 737 fuselages, which was considered one of the factors why the door plugs on the Alaska Airlines plane failed.

A Southwest Airlines 737 MAX 8 also experienced a "Dutch roll" in a flight in May.

This prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to demand Boeing to report how and why planes with missing bolts and door plugs could pass through quality control and provide an overhaul of the whole process.

Eventually, Boeing considered acquiring Spirit, and both firms agreed to do so on Monday (July 1).

Other Boeing planes were involved in minor and unrelated incidents since criticism against the company surged, such as a FedEx cargo plane landing in Istanbul without its front landing gear, another 737 skidding off the runway and catching fire in Senegal, Donald Trump's 757 hitting a corporate jet, an engine fire each for a Garuda Indonesia 747 and an Air Canada 777, and the death of a British man while a Singapore Airlines 777 experienced turbulence in its supposed final stretch from London to Singapore, forcing the plane to land in Bangkok.

As for its space business, the CST-100 Starliner has been faced with an almost decade-long delay in sending humans to and from the International Space Station, causing many Boeing critics and other skeptics to claim that NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams are currently stranded aboard despite officials merely saying that their return to Earth was delayed due to further "testing" of the spacecraft after helium leaks were discovered after liftoff.

Because of such issues, SpaceX and Tesla boss Elon Musk claimed that Boeing had too many non-technical managers.

Employee Woes

What made Boeing's situation worse was the fate of the people who called out the company for its alleged dodgy practices.

One highlight of such is the mysterious death of former Boeing employee and whistleblower John Barnett, who initially claimed that there were flaws in its 777 and 787 airframes.

It remains to be seen whether Barnett ended his own life or was assassinated.

Meanwhile, multiple Boeing engineers were also harassed or dismissed from their jobs because they were concerned over the airworthiness of the planes it had been manufacturing, including military ones.

It is understood that the US Air Force has been actively pressing Boeing to replace its current fleet of VC-25s, which are heavily modified Boeing 747s that normally bear the callsign "Air Force One." Breaking Defense reported the new Air Force One planes, coded as VC-25B, are set to make their maiden flight in March 2026.

Boeing has also delayed the delivery of its KC-46 tankers to the Air Force.

Despite this, the company was awarded a $7.5 billion contract to develop its JDAM smart bombs further.

Several Boeing unionized firefighters and emergency responders have also called on the company to settle their labor disputes over a new four-year contract after it struck a deal with its unionized machinists.

Industry Repercussions

As a result of Boeing's scandals, many players in the aviation industry are struggling to stem the tide of concern from the general public about the company's impact.

Multiple carriers have been faced with employment issues, delivery delays, design flaws, and even poor market performance.

For its part, Alaska Airlines has since received an initial $160 million payment for the mid-air incident and an additional $61 million in credit memos to compensate for damages.

On the other hand, United Airlines revised its aircraft delivery expectations for Boeing due to plane delivery delays.

This issue also prompted Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and other executives to resign from their posts. However, it was revealed that Calhoun earned almost $33 million in his pay package despite declining a $2.8 million bonus. Calhoun has since been reelected to the board in a non-executive capacity.

Boeing has since been summoned by lawmakers on Capitol Hill for multiple hearings regarding the issue.

Tags

US, Boeing, Department of Justice, Federal Aviation Administration