Corporations are persons! Boeing to be charged with a felony.

[Jim Bow]

Multiple counts of manslaughter perhaps?

A federal judge has ordered Boeing Co. to be arraigned on a felony charge stemming from crashes of two 737 Max jets, a ruling that threatens to unravel an agreement Boeing negotiated to avoid prosecution.
The ruling by a judge in Texas came after relatives of some of the victims said the government violated their rights by reaching a settlement with Boeing without first notifying the families.
U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor ordered Boeing to send a representative to his courtroom in Fort Worth Jan. 26 for arraignment.
A Boeing spokesman said the company had no comment. The Justice Department, which did not oppose a public arraignment but has fought against re-opening the settlement, also declined to comment.
The judge’s ruling is a narrow one that does not guarantee Boeing will face prosecution. That, however, remains the goal of lawyers for relatives of some of the 346 people killed in the crashes.
One of those lawyers, Paul Cassell, said the Justice Department could stand by the settlement even after the arraignment and a hearing at which passengers’ survivors are expected to speak.

[skuthorp]

……..and the ground under senior executives gives a tremor…………But I bet it goes no where.

[WI-Tom]

Texas has the death penalty. If corporations are persons, they can be executed just like everyone else in Texas. Right?

Tom

[skuthorp]

So, who holds the Legally Responsible person office in such corporations? Or does it involve several levels of responsibility?

[Jim Bow]

The arraignment is scheduled for Jan 26 in Texas. A lawyer will represent the corperson.

[skuthorp]

Could they jail the whole board? That would be nice………...

[epoxyboy]

Texas has the death penalty. If corporations are persons, they can be executed just like everyone else in Texas. Right?

Tom

But is it them, they, he, or she?

[Tom Hunter]

Convicted felons are often barred from doing business with various levels of government. There is a lot of revenue at stake if this actually goes to court.

[Andrew2]

Where to start? Certain individuals pushed the old design beyond it's limits, because, to get it right would have cost 'too much' money, in their view. Then, they put in systems to offset the possible problems, but didn't get that right.
How to identify the culprits might be tricky, but it should be done.

[skuthorp]

At the top someone or some group at least OK'd those decisions.

[Jim Bow]

At the top someone or some group at least OK'd those decisions.

Somewhere an engineer kowtowed to a beancounter. Had that happened in 1967, there wouldn’t have been a 747.

[gypsie]

Somewhere, when someone said we need more money, and a bean counter said we don't have it - a decision maker agreed with the bean counter.
When it comes to safety responsibility usually starts at the CEO and filters out from there in a who dunnit scenario.

[John Meachen]

Could they jail the whole board? That would be nice………...

The people who are happy to take vast sums of money for doing "important" jobs really ought to be culpable and maybe a spell behind bars would make the point rather forcibly.I expect there will be a paper trail and I would think somebody will be following it.

[webishop14]

Somewhere an engineer kowtowed to a beancounter. Had that happened in 1967, there wouldn’t have been a 747.

Bean counters are good at counting. Period. I once was rented out to a highly profitable local manufacturing company. The company was acquired by a group of bean counters in Chicago. Less than 10 years later, the company was sold at salvage value. Chalk it up to "value engineering."

[Bflat]

If corporations are people; and people own corporations...isn't that people owning people?

[robm]

Where to start? Certain individuals pushed the old design beyond it's limits, because, to get it right would have cost 'too much' money, in their view. Then, they put in systems to offset the possible problems, but didn't get that right.

Then they didn't tell anyone about the new systems, or teach them what to do if they did go wrong. "Just like the old 737 you are used to, no training required", they said.

A sequence of poor decisions, getting worse and worse as they went.

The people who are happy to take vast sums of money for doing "important" jobs really ought to be culpable and maybe a spell behind bars would make the point rather forcibly.

There are similarities with the Baldwin shooting.