A Boeing 737 MAX 7 aircraft lands during an evaluation flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, September 30, 2020.
Lindsey Wasson | Reuters
Boeing will pay $200 million and it then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg will pay $1 million to settle charges over misleading investors in the wake of two deadly crashes of 737 Max jetliners, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
“There are no words to describe the tragic loss of life brought about by these two airplane crashes,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement.
The two crashes — one in October 2018 and another in March 2019 — killed all 346 people aboard the two flights and led to a worldwide grounding of the jetliners, which was first lifted in late 2020.
Boeing fired Muilenberg in December 2019 in the midst of the planes’ extended grounding and comments about when he expected regulators to clear the planes to fly again. The comments also strained the manufacturer’s relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration, prompting public admonishment by the regulator.