US jury awards $29m in Ethiopia Boeing crash

A Chicago jury has awarded $29 million to the family of an Irish-born United Nations employee who died in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash.

The civil case was brought against Boeing by Naoise Connolly Ryan, widow of Michael Ryan, a 39-year-old engineer with the UN World Food Programme. Ryan was among 157 people killed when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa.

Court records from the US District Court in Chicago said the jury found that the plaintiff had suffered total damages of $29 million.

Ryan had previously worked during the Ebola crisis in Liberia and with Rohingya refugees. He also worked in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Ethiopia.

The case is among the final civil lawsuits against Boeing arising from the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, which together killed 346 people. Most claims have been settled out of court for undisclosed amounts, but Ryan’s family continued with litigation.

Boeing said it was deeply sorry to the families who lost relatives in the crashes and acknowledged that defects involving the aircraft’s anti-stall software played a role in both accidents. The company said families had the right to pursue their claims through the courts.

In May, a Chicago jury awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, who was also killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

SOURCE: AFP