FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Relatives of passengers who died in two crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes came to a federal court in Texas on Friday to listen as their lawyers asked a judge to throw out a plea agreement that the aircraft manufacturer struck with prosecutors and put the company on trial.
Their lawyers argued that Boeing's punishment — mainly a fine amounting to about $244 million — would be too light for misleading regulators about a flight-control system that malfunctioned before the crashes. They accused Boeing and the Justice Department of airbrushing facts and ignoring that 346 people died in the crashes.
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor asked a Boeing lawyer why he should accept the prepackaged plea deal and a sentence negotiated by a defendant.
The Boeing lawyer, Ben Hatch, said Boeing "is a pillar of the national economy and the national defense” and needs to know the punishment before it agrees to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud, a felony. Otherwise, he said, the company could be disbarred from federal contracting.
“All the employees of the company, the shareholders of the company and a global and national supply chain ... all of those are put into doubt if the sentencing" isn't known, possibly for months, Hatch said.
The answer stunned and angered relatives of the victims.
“Boeing is too important for the economy — they're too big to jail. That's what he's saying,” Michael Stumo, whose daughter Samya died in the second crash, said after the hearing. “It allows them to kill people with no consequences because they're too big and because their shareholders won't like it.”
The government joined Boeing in asking the judge to accept the deal that they struck in July.
Sean Tonolli, senior deputy chief of the Justice Department's fraud section, said the conspiracy count is the most serious crime prosecutors can bring — they can't prove that Boeing's deception of regulators caused the crashes. And, he said, going to trial is risky.
“We are confident in our case, but we don’t take for granted that we might not win," he said.
The judge, who had received written arguments from all sides before the hearing in Fort Worth, asked questions but gave no indication if he is leaning one way or the other. He has expressed sympathy for the passengers' families before, writing in a 2023 ruling about "Boeing’s egregious criminal conduct.”
“You have given me a lot to think about,” O'Connor said to all the lawyers as Friday's hearing ended. “I'll get a ruling out just as soon as I can.”
In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to commit fraud for allegedly deceiving Federal Aviation Administration regulators who were writing pilot-training requirements for the Max.
The FAA approved minimal, computer-based training for Boeing 737 pilots before they could fly the Max, the latest version of the 737. That helped Boeing by avoiding the need for training in flight simulators, which would have raised the cost for airlines to operate the Max.
Airlines began flying the Max in 2017. The first crash occurred in Indonesia in October 2018, followed in March 2019 by the second, in Ethiopia.
The plea agreement calls for Boeing to pay a fine of up to $487.2 million, but the fine would be cut in half by giving the company credit for $243.6 million it paid as part of a $2.5 billion settlement in 2021 to avoid prosecution. The Justice Department decided in May that Boeing violated terms of that settlement, leading to the new plea deal.
Boeing, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, would also invest $455 million in compliance and safety programs, and be placed on probation for three years.
The case is among a host of issues with which the manufacturer most contend.
Talks broke down this week with striking factory workers who assemble some of the company’s best-selling planes. The company withdrew its offer and S&P Global Ratings put it on its credit watch list, citing increased financial risk because of the labor unrest.
On Thursday, the company filed a complaint over what it calls unfair labor practices against the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Boeing in its complaint with the National Labor Relations Board said that the union’s public narrative is misleading and has made it difficult to reach a resolution.
Catherine Berthet, whose daughter Camille Geoffrey died in the March, 2019, crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max, speaks outside federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. Lawyers are asking a federal judge to throw out a plea agreement that the aircraft manufacturer Boeing struck with federal prosecutors. (AP Photo/Dave Koenig)
Florida residents began repairing damage from Hurricane Milton, which smashed through coastal communities and tore homes to pieces, flooded streets and spawned a deadly tornadoes.
At least 10 people are dead, but many expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse.
Follow AP’s coverage of tropical weather at https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes.
Here’s the latest:
According to Col. Blake Heidelberg from the Florida National Guard, the state has mobilized more than 6,000 of its Guard members, and there are forces from 19 other states that are either on the ground there or en route.
He said he expects the overall number of troops to jump to 7,500-8,000 as forces come in. And discussions will continue if more are needed.
Heidelberg said more than 250 civilians have been rescued by search and rescue teams, and that there are more than 31 aircraft and 500 high-wheeled vehicles from an array of states supporting the storm response.
Heidelberg said that troops will continue working on humanitarian assistance and debris removal for the next week or so. He said the state doesn’t need active duty forces and currently has no “unmet needs” or pending requests for assistance that haven’t been answered.
PALM HARBOR, Fla. — The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office used high water vehicles Friday to shuttle people back and forth to their homes in a flooded Palm Harbor neighborhood where waters continued to rise.
Ashley Cabrera climbed down from the massive truck with her 18-year-old and 11year-old sons and their three dogs, Eeyore, Poe and Molly. It was the first time since Milton passed that they’ve been able to leave the neighborhood and they’re now headed to a hotel in Orlando.
“I’m extremely thankful that we could get out now and go for the weekend somewhere we can get a hot meal and some gas,” she said. “I thought we’d be able to get out as soon as the storm was over. These roads have never flooded like this in all the years that I’ve lived here.”
Taking her place on the sheriff’s truck was Madeleine Jiron, her husband Mario and their dog, Harry Potter. The Jirons evacuated to Tallahassee and were just arriving home to see what awaits them.
“We don’t know what type of damage we have,” she said. “We’ll see when we get there.”
Despite the difficulties getting home, she said she’s glad they evacuated. The couple stayed home during Hurricane Helene but took this storm more seriously.
“The storm looked like it was going to be a dead hit on Tampa so we decided it was best to leave,” Jiron said.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A sixth death was confirmed in St. Lucie County in the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village, according to the county sheriff’s office public information officer Tonya Woodworth. A tornado had passed through that neighborhood.
This brings the total confirmed storm-related deaths in Florida to 10.
It’s a reflection of the news industry and modern world of work that Tampa Bay Times editor Mark Katches seems more relaxed than you’d expect after a crane pushed by Hurricane Milton’s winds gouged a hole in the building that houses his newsroom.
“It’s had zero impact on our operations,” Katches said in an interview Friday.
The crane collapse in downtown St. Petersburg is one of the most visible symbols of Milton’s damage, so much so that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference at the scene Friday.
The Times Publishing Co. used to own the damaged building but sold it in 2016, and the news organization is now one of several tenants there. The building was closed when Milton roared through late Tuesday and early Wednesday, in part because it has no backup generators, so no one working for the Times or anyone else was hurt, the editor said.
The Times is the largest newspaper serving the more than 3.3 million people who live in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.
▶ Read more about the Tampa Bay Times.
FEMA Deputy Director Erik Hooks said he believes reforms implemented at the start of this year have allowed for greater and faster access to disaster aid compared to years past.
“What we have seen is with our changes in our (individual assistance) program is really to break down the complexity, and we really went through a lot of internal work to make sure that we are truly meeting people where they are,” Hooks said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“The ability to have upfront money put in people’s hands who have applied for assistance, and to get them jump started on the recovery for those immediate needs, things that are really life-sustaining to be able to get water make medicines that look like that, I think they have a positive impact on those communities, especially those communities where those are cash strapped to begin with, and then suffer the impacts of the storm,” he added.
President Joe Biden said ahead of a Friday briefing about hurricane damage that estimates are that Hurricane Milton alone caused $50 billion of damage. He also said his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, is “just the biggest mouth” for disinformation about the government’s response.
The president added that the disinformation is a “permanent state of being for some extreme people,” but that he belives the country as a whole wants facts and bipartisan cooperation to address natural disasters.
An apartment complex in Clearwater was evacuated early Thursday when water from a canal started rising.
Residents were gathered in a shopping center parking lot as crews worked to clear the property Friday.
Jared Lynch, 32, said he was at home on his first floor apartment when the water started to rise Wednesday night.
“It wasn’t that bad at 10 o’clock, but that’s when it started rising,” he said, adding that by 2 a.m., the water was up to his doorknobs. That’s when he left.
“There were literally people walking through the water with baskets on their heads. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Lynch said.
But Deanne Criswell says FEMA will need additional funding at some point.
Criswell says the agency is keeping account every day of how much they’re drawing from the disaster assistance fund. That’s a pot of money allocated specifically to help the agency respond to emergencies across the country.
The fund gets replenished every year by Congress and is used to pay for recovery from hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters.
Congress recently replenished the fund with $20 billion — the same amount FEMA got last year. About $8 billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation projects.
Criswell says the fund won’t have enough money to last through the entire fiscal year, which stretches to September of next year. She says at some point, they’ll have to go back to Congress to ask for a boost to the disaster relief fund.
“We will need one. It’s just a matter of when,” she said.
Mayor Lynne Matthews spoke at a news conference Friday with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and the city’s manager, Gregory B. Murray.
Matthews says 121 people had to be rescued after Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26 but rescuers only had to save three people after Milton came through.
“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews said.
“I know we had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate,” she said.
Bruce Kinsler, 68, was part of a Polk County “push crew” that began clearing roads before 6 a.m. on Thursday. A truck struck Kinsler as he and a coworker were trying to clear a tree that had fallen across the road as the storm passed through the area. The driver of the truck was a county employee who was arriving to join Kinsler for post-storm recovery work.
“The tragedy of this incident is compounded by the fact that Bruce Kinsler was killed serving the residents of this county,” said Bill Braswell, chairman of the Polk County Commission. “We ask a lot of the employees as public servants, and they respond to the call. For this to happen is just a tragedy.”
The White House announced Biden’s visit but did not detail exactly where the president will travel.
Biden was scheduled to be briefed by aides Friday afternoon on the federal response and recovery in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene. He’ll then deliver remarks from the White House to update the public about those efforts.
One of those Friday was a large pig stuck in high water at a strip mall in Lithia, FLorida, which is east of Tampa. Cindy Evers led the rescue of the pig and she’s also saved a donkey and several goats.
The animals are being taken to Evers’ farm for the time being.
“I’m high and dry where I’m at and I have a barn and nine acres,” she said. “So we have plenty of room for these animals to be safe.” Evers said she’ll figure out next steps later, such as finding the animals' owners.
Gov. DeSantis noted interactions with downed power lines and water.
“We are seeing hazards that are still there,” he said. He said people should take care around standing water and should use generators properly.
“You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there,” he said.
Human-caused climate change intensified deadly Hurricane Milton ’s rainfall by 20 to 30% and strengthened its winds by about 10%, scientists said in a new flash study. The analysis comes just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern United States, a storm also fueled by climate change.
World Weather Attribution researchers said Friday that without climate change, a hurricane like Milton would make landfall as a weaker Category 2, not considered a “major” storm, instead of a Category 3.
WWA’s rapid studies aren’t peer-reviewed but use peer-reviewed methods. The WWA compares a weather event with what might have been expected in a world that hasn’t warmed about 1.3 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times.
▶ Read more about how climate change affected Milton.
Only authorized personnel are allowed on the bases. There was damage and flooding at MacDill, which is home to U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command.
There's no significant damage at Patrick and teams are working to restore critical infrastructure, according to the Air Force.
The river is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and runs from eastern Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, into Tampa Bay.
The sheriff’s office asked people to call 911 if they need help getting out of their homes.
A pair of unwelcome and destructive guests named Helene and Milton have stormed their way into this year’s presidential election.
The back-to-back hurricanes have jumbled the schedules of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, both of whom devoted part of their Thursdays to tackling questions about the storm recovery effort.
The two hurricanes are forcing basic questions about who as president would best respond to deadly natural disasters, a once-overlooked issue that has become an increasingly routine part of the job. And just weeks before the Nov. 5 election, the storms have disrupted the mechanics of voting in several key counties.
A pick up drives past a guard gate on a flooded street in Siesta Key, Fla., following the passage Hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
FILE - People are rescued from an apartment complex after flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
FILE - A house sits toppled off its stilts after the passage of Hurricane Milton, alongside an empty lot where a home was swept away by Hurricane Helene, in Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
