Jan. 13, 2021 1:59 am ET Boeing Co. ’s drone unit has agreed to pay $25 million to settle civil-fraud allegations that it overcharged on more than half a dozen contracts signed with the U.S. Navy and special forces between 2009 and 2017.
Announced Tuesday by the Justice Department and Pentagon investigative agencies, the settlement stems from whistleblower claims by a then-official of the unit, Insitu Inc., that it knowingly charged new-part prices for “less expensive recycled, refurbished, reconditioned and/or reconfigured parts.” According to the Justice Department, the contracts with the Navy and the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command required new parts and materials.
Updated Jan. 12, 2021 6:34 pm ET
The Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed on Saturday didnât fly for nearly nine months last year, with air travel severely reduced because of the coronavirus pandemic, Indonesiaâs transportation ministry said, as search crews pulled one of the planeâs so-called black boxes from the Java Sea.
The Boeing Co. 737-500 was inspected and declared airworthy before resuming flying operations, the ministry said.
The Indonesian carrierâs aircraft with 62 people on board went down minutes after taking off from the countryâs capital, Jakarta. There are believed to be no survivors.
Divers and search crew, who grappled with sharp debris and low underwater visibility, managed to recover the planeâs flight-data recorder on Tuesday, an important early step in uncovering why SJ182 crashed.
Airbus in the global plane-making business.
Airbus easily retained its No. 1 spot in 2020 as Boeing on Tuesday reported a big decline in orders and deliveries. It handed over just 84 passenger jets to airline customers, down almost 90% from a peak in 2018. Buyers pay most of the purchase price on delivery, so Boeing has been short of cash, forcing it to raise debt and cut costs.
Both plane makers have been dented by the pandemic-driven slump in air travel. With vaccines raising hopes for a recovery, Airbus said it is preparing to increase production after slowing output last year.
Boeing, in contrast, has become more reliant on sales of cargo and military jets to ease the strain on its finances caused by the prolonged grounding of the 737 MAX and manufacturing problems that have halted deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner.
Indonesia Plane Crash Investigators Await Black Boxes to Understand What Happened to Boeing Aircraft
Pings detected as divers face sharp, heavy debris from shattered plane in Java Sea Indonesian authorities believe they have located the crash site and black boxes of a Boeing 737-500 carrying 62 people that crashed into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff. Image: Ed Wray/Getty Images By Jan. 11, 2021 8:37 am ET
As divers approached the underwater area where they expected to find the black boxes of Indonesia’s Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed into the sea, it became clear their task wasn’t going to be easy.
The Indonesian airline wasn’t immediately available for comment. Boeing referred
Barron’s to a statement it released on Saturday.
“We are aware of media reports from Jakarta regarding Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182,” it said. “Our thoughts are with the crew, passengers, and their families. We are in contact with our airline customer and stand ready to support them during this difficult time.”
Although the plane involved was a different model, the latest crash is likely to remind investors of Boeing’s problems with the 737 MAX jet. That plane was grounded from March 2019 until late last year following two deadly crashes within five months.