Relatives of people killed in two Boeing Co. 737 Max jet crashes asked a Texas federal judge to reject a plea agreement the planemaker reached with the US Justice Department, setting up a possible court fight over how the company resolves its criminal liability.

Boeing agreed earlier this month to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy in connection with crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. As part of the deal, which requires a judge’s approval, Boeing would pay a new criminal fine, install a independent corporate monitor for three years and spend at least US$455 million to bolster its compliance and safety programs.

Families of the victims filed their formal objection to the deal Wednesday in federal court in Texas. Among other things, they said the agreement doesn’t adequately hold Boeing to account for the 346 deaths from the crashes and that the judge should be the one to select the company’s monitor, rather than the Justice Department with input from Boeing.

The families also argued that Boeing should face “significantly larger and more meaningful” financial penalties than outlined in the deal.

“What emerged from the negotiations was a plea agreement treating Boeing’s deadly crime as another run-of-the-mill corporate compliance problem,” the families wrote in the filing.

The relatives have been signaling they’d object for weeks. The plea deal was struck after the US government determined in May that Boeing had violated a 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement. The Justice Department and Boeing have two weeks to respond to the objection.

US District Judge Reed O’Connor, who is overseeing the case, has yet to decide if he’ll hold a hearing on the plea deal. The families urged him to reject the deal and to schedule a jury trial to hear the case against Boeing later this year.

The case is US v. Boeing, 21-cr-005, US District Court, Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth).

  - Bloomberg