Boeing crisis: How mid-air blowout could imperil DOJ crash agreement from 2021

US authorities are facing fresh pressure from families of the victims of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes to criminally prosecute the aerospace company following a January mid-air blowout that exposed ongoing safety issues.<br/>Victims' representatives meeting on Tuesday and later this month with US Justice Department officials are expected to say that Boeing violated a 2021 deal with prosecutors to overhaul its compliance program following crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. That settlement shielded Boeing from criminal prosecution. Justice Department officials are probing whether Boeing has complied with that 2021 agreement and are considering the Jan. 5 blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 jet as part of that review, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Boeing in January 2021 agreed with the Justice Department to pay $2.5b to resolve a criminal investigation into the company's conduct surrounding the fatal crashes. The agreement included money to compensate victims' relatives and required Boeing to overhaul its compliance practices. The deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), gave the U.S. planemaker an avenue to avoid being prosecuted on a charge of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Prosecutors agreed to ask a court to dismiss the fraud charge if they determined Boeing complied with the agreement over a three-year period. Families of the fatal crashes have criticized the agreement, arguing it failed to hold the company and executives accountable. Story has more.<br/>