Boeing has agreed to pay about $225 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit that claimed the company’s directors failed to monitor safety issues related to the crashes of two 737 MAX planes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing informed sources.
The agreed payments will reportedly be transferred to the group’s accounts out of the directors’ insurance funds.
As part of the settlement, Boeing also decided to hire an ombudsman to deal with the company’s internal affairs. According to the Wall Street Journal, it also intends to appoint a person with wide aviation security experience to the board of directors.
The newspaper notes that the agreement does not mean that Boeing directors pleaded guilty.
The proposed settlement is expected to be approved by Delaware’s Court of Chancery, which was filed with the lawsuit in February.
Two Boeing 737 MAX passenger airlines crashed, one in Indonesia in October 2018 and the other in Ethiopia in March 2019, killing a combined 346 people. The use of the 737 MAX was suspended worldwide. Boeing admitted that in both cases, there was a malfunction in the maneuverability enhancement system before the planes crashed.
