Boeing (BOE, Washington National) has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud federal regulators relating to two B737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people.

During a three-hour arraignment in the District Court for the Northern District of Texas on January 26, Boeing's chief aerospace safety officer, Mike Delaney, entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of the manufacturer, according to multiple news reports.

Boeing is accused of conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about the safety of a critical automated flight control system called the Maneuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that played a significant role in causing the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019. Boeing's B737 MAX chief technical pilot, Mark A. Forkner, was charged with fraud for having misled the regulator while working on the aircraft certification, but he was acquitted of all charges on March 23, 2022.

In January 2021, Boeing had admitted to the conspiracy in a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve the criminal charge in exchange for a USD2.5 billion fine. This included a criminal penalty of USD243.6 million, USD1.77 billion in compensation to B737 MAX airline customers, and USD500 million in compensation to heirs, relatives, and legal beneficiaries of those who died in the two crashes.

The beneficiaries have petitioned the court to rescind Boeing's current immunity from prosecution, arguing they were not consulted about what they called a "secret, sweetheart deal." In October, a judge ruled they were directly harmed by Boeing's conspiracy to defraud the United States and declared crime victims under the US Crime Victims' Rights Act.

According to multiple media reports, about a dozen relatives gave emotional testimony during the arraignment about how they were impacted by the crashes, which they charged was the "deadliest corporate crime in US history" in court papers. They asked Judge Reed O'Connor to appoint an independent monitor to oversee Boeing's compliance with the terms of the DPA, which should be made public to the fullest extent possible.

Judge O'Connor made no decision as Boeing and the DOJ opposed the request, but he imposed a standard condition that Boeing commits no new crimes.

In a statement after the arraignment, Boeing said: "We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Flight 302, and greatly respect those who expressed their views at the hearing today." The manufacturer stated it had made "broad and deep changes across our company and made changes to the design of the B737 MAX to ensure that accidents like these never happen again. We also are committed to continuing to comply scrupulously with all of our obligations under the agreement we entered into with the Justice Department two years ago," it said.