A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against The Boeing Co who is accused of improperly installing insulation blankets on KC-10 airplanes and overcharging the U.S. Air Force for services it provided.
The Boeing Co. has agreed to settle the matter for $25 million – $18.4 million of which will be paid up front and the remaining $6.6 million will be paid by performing in-kind services to the Air Force which uses KC-10 Extender planes to refuel aircraft during flight as part of the United State's operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The whistleblowers from the originally filed civil cases will receive $1.3 million.
The 2006 lawsuit, filed by Boeing mechanics, alleged Boeing defectively installed insulation blanket kits in the KC-10s while performing depot maintenance work at the Boeing Aerospace Support Center in San Antonio. A subsequent two-year investigation by the Defense Department's Criminal Investigative Service and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations also uncovered that Boeing overcharged the government for installing the kits.
