The government “expects that the earliest it could file the plea agreement is Wednesday, July 24, 2024,” the department said in a filing late Thursday.

Boeing and DOJ announced an accord earlier this month in which the aviation giant consented to enter a guilty plea to a fraud charge over the certification of the 737 MAX.

The DOJ said at the time it would file the plea agreement by July 19.

While the two parties “have made substantial progress” in the case, an extension is needed to address “corporate formalities” and other issues before submitting the document to a Texas federal court.

The action followed an earlier determination that Boeing had violated a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement following two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that claimed 346 lives.

The latest agreement’s other provisions include a fresh US$243.6 million fine on Boeing, as well as the appointment of an independent monitor.

Family members of MAX crash victims have pushed for more severe sanctions.

In the most recent DOJ filing targeting July 24, the agency said it will “continue to work expeditiously in an effort to file that day, but if it cannot, it will submit instead a further status report to apprise the Court of the parties’ progress.”