Hawker Beechcraft is defending its plan to pay more than $5.3 million in bonuses to eight top executives. Company officials call the executives a talented group that has much work left to do before the company can emerge from bankruptcy.

The company told the bankruptcy judge in a document filed Thursday just hours before a hearing that its executives must continue to pursue both the sale of the company to a Chinese firm and a reorganized standalone company.

Their document notes that some of the remaining work includes shutting down the company’s business jet operations, which would include closing facilities and cutting the workforce under the standalone proposal.

The Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog and the machinists union have both filed objections to the bonus plan.