NEW YORK, July 8, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Boeing on Monday said it had "reached an agreement" with the US Department of Justice over two fatal 737 MAX crashes more than five years ago.

"We have reached an agreement in principle on terms of a resolution with the Justice Department, subject to the memorialization and approval of specific terms," Boeing told AFP in a statement.

The deal comes after prosecutors concluded the aviation giant flouted an earlier settlement addressing the disasters, in which 346 people were killed in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

Sources told AFP last week that Boeing was on a deadline to accept or reject a DoJ proposal that would require it to plead guilty to fraud during the certification of MAX airplanes.

Boeing's latest legal predicament was triggered by a DoJ determination in mid-May that the company ignored a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) by not meeting requirements to improve its compliance and ethics program after the MAX crashes.

Families of MAX victims were "highly disappointed" by the deal reached between Boeing and the DoJ, an attorney at Clifford Law representing them said.

"Much more evidence has been presented over the last five years that demonstrates that the culture of Boeing putting profits over safety hasn't changed. This plea agreement only furthers that skewed corporate objective," senior partner Robert A. Clifford said in a statement.