Last updated May 14, 2026
The two deadly 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people and devastated Boeing's reputation.
Dateline
United States
Editorial note
Compiled by After the Headline from public reporting, court filings, official records, and the sources cited below.
Current status
Boeing's proposed guilty-plea deal unraveled, the Justice Department later moved to dismiss the criminal fraud case, and in March 2026 a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal. Civil litigation continued separately, and AP reported in May 2026 that a federal jury awarded damages to the family of a victim in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash.
Boeing's proposed guilty-plea deal unraveled, the Justice Department later moved to dismiss the criminal fraud case, and in March 2026 a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal. Civil litigation continued separately, and AP reported in May 2026 that a federal jury awarded damages to the family of a victim in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash.
People remember the crashes and the grounding, but not that Boeing ultimately avoided a criminal trial while civil cases continued to produce separate outcomes.
Deep dive
The details most readers never saw once the original coverage cycle moved on.
The MAX story is usually remembered as a design and safety scandal. The criminal follow-up is less widely understood. Boeing had reached a deal to plead guilty to fraud conspiracy, but that agreement hit resistance in court, was reworked, and then effectively fell apart. By March 2025, a judge had even set a June trial date while Boeing and the DOJ kept negotiating. Then the government reversed course and sought dismissal. In March 2026, a federal appeals court upheld the lower court's decision to let the DOJ dismiss the case, despite objections from some victims' families.
That did not end every legal thread. Civil cases tied to the crashes continued. AP reported in May 2026 that a federal jury awarded damages to the family of a passenger killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash. The distinction matters: the criminal fraud case over the MAX crashes was dismissed, but Boeing's civil exposure and safety scrutiny did not simply disappear.
So one of the most consequential corporate scandals of the era ended without the criminal trial many people expected, while related civil accountability continued on a separate track.
Timeline
The sequence of major developments, ordered from newest to oldest.
Update
Update
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