Boeing to pay SEC $200m to settle charges it misled investors over 737 MAX safety

The Register ^ | 23 September 2022 | Richard Currie

[CodeToad]

Boeing has agreed to pay $200 million to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claiming the aviation giant misled investors about the safety of its 737 MAX airplane.

The 737 MAX was involved in two crashes that killed all aboard in 2018 and 2019, now understood to be at least partly caused by flaws in the aircraft's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) software. Boeing admitted MCAS played a role in both accidents.

MCAS was intended to automatically kick in and help prevent the 737 Max from stalling in a particular flight scenario where the aircraft's angle of attack (AoA) becomes too high. It did so through adjusting the airliner's trim, pushing the aircraft's nose down in 10-second bursts.

...

The SEC found that Boeing and (Dennis) Muilenburg (ex-CEO)"negligently violated the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws." The company and ex-CEO have consented to cease-and-desist orders that include penalties of $200 million and $1 million, respectively, without admitting or denying the SEC's findings. The money will go toward reimbursing investors.

[CodeToad]

Boeing screwed the pooch on the 737 Max for many reasons. Boeing has also paid a heavy price including losing their self-auditing capability, which they never should have had in the first place. There sits over 100 737 Max aircraft on airport ramps Boeing needs to sell, since cancelation by airlines of that beast.

What could have been a money maker is now an existential risk to Boeing.

[CodeToad]

P.S. Dennis walked out with $26 million just for his last year as CEO. He won’t miss a $1 million since that is paid by E&O insurance anyway.

[srmanuel]

I think Boeing got off to light, a lot of people died in crashed caused by their negligence.

I think any executives that had oversight of the 737 should have been criminally investigated and any bonuses they received should be paid back.

[jroehl]

The software here was written by H1B visa holders from India.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I'm not a pilot, so my opinion here has the potential to be way off base, but here it is. Why didn't the pilots in the 2 fatal crashes quickly turn off the autopilot? This short oscillating pattern should tell you something is wrong, and I assume it is every pilot's instinct (well, almost every pilot's instinct) to take back control of the aircraft and fly it right. I know that you read post mortems that say "then the pilot forgot to fly the airplane..." indicating that the PIC weas overwhelmed with information or procedural checklists or whatever and failed to address the basics of flight.

[minnesota_bound]

They also charged extra to tell how MCAS worked.

[abb]

Third World pilots.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Thank you. Thank you very much. I assumed that. Plus their employers went with the low-buck delivery option that didn’t include specific training on that feature.

Again, not a pilot, but my thought would be when you get into trouble, turn off the magic and fly the sucker.

[dfwgator]

I have a question, what does the SEC do with that money?

[RckyRaCoCo]

old thread, but recent(interesting)incident(A321NEO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMhZL-zmmac