The U.S. Justice Department said on Friday it has struck a deal in principle with Boeing to allow it to avoid prosecution in a fraud case stemming from two fatal 737 MAX plane crashes that killed 346 people.
The agreement allows Boeing to avoid being branded a convicted felon and is a blow to families who lost relatives in the crashes and had pressed prosecutors to take the U.S. planemaker to trial.
Boeing has agreed to pay an additional $444.5 million into a crash victims' fund that would be divided evenly per crash victim on top of an additional $243.6 million fine.
The Justice Department expects to file the written agreement with Boeing by the end of next week.