By Dave Michaels and Andrew Tangel

Boeing Co. will pay $2.5 billion to resolve a Justice Department investigation and admit employees misled aviation about safety issues linked to two deadly crashes of its 737 MAX jet, U.S. authorities said.

The settlement filed Thursday in Dallas federal court lifts a legal cloud that has hung over the Seattle aerospace giant for about two years since the crashes. Federal prosecutors had been investigating the role of two Boeing employees who interacted with the Federal Aviation Administration about the 737 MAX's design and how much pilot training would be required for the new model.

The settlement includes a $243 million fine as well as $2.2 billion in compensation to airline customers and families of 346 people who were killed in the two crashes.

Boeing Chief Executive David Calhoun said the Justice Department deal appropriately acknowledges the plane maker's shortcomings.

"This resolution is a serious reminder to all of us of how critical our obligation of transparency to regulators is, and the consequences that our company can face if any one of us falls short of those expectations, " Mr. Calhoun said in an internal memo Thursday.

Boeing's resolution is structured as deferred-prosecution agreement, which allows the company to avoid being prosecuted as long as no trouble arises for three years. The company was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. The deal also calls for Boeing to improve internal compliance programs to guard against future lapses, according to court documents.

The probe focused on the actions of two former Boeing pilots who were key liaisons with the FAA on technical questions required to certify the MAX for commercial flying. Court documents filed Thursday don't identify the two individuals, but The Wall Street Journal has previously reported they are Mark Forkner and Patrik Gustavsson.

Neither Mr. Forkner nor Mr. Gustavsson were charged Thursday. An attorney for Mr. Forkner declined to comment.

"Patrik Gustavsson never hid anything from the FAA or any pilot," his attorney, James F. Bennett, said Thursday. "He did the exact opposite throughout his time at Boeing and has been completely committed to the safety of passengers and crew. Any claim to the contrary is false."

The MAX debacle has dogged Boeing ever since one of the aircraft crashed in Indonesia in late 2018 and another in Ethiopia in early 2019. After the second accident, regulators around the globe grounded the jets, preventing Boeing from delivering a best-selling moneymaker. Planes piled up, the manufacturer had to halt production and its frustrated board ousted senior executives including then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg. Last year the company estimated the MAX crisis had cost it around $20 billion.

Write to Dave Michaels at dave.michaels@wsj.com and Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-07-21 1721ET