United States (US) justice has ordered aircraft manufacturer Boeing to pay 29 million dollars (25.2 million euros) to the family of a passenger who died in a 2019 disaster.
A spokesperson for the federal court in Chicago announced on Wednesday that a jury ordered Boeing to pay compensation to the relatives of an Irish UN engineer who died in the 737 MAX 8 crash.
The civil lawsuit was filed by the widow of Michael “Mick” Ryan, one of the 157 people who died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 on March 10, 2019. The aircraft was a 737 MAX 8, delivered a few months earlier. Ryan, a World Food Programme employee and father of two, was among 21 UN employees who died that day while traveling to the United Nations Environment Assembly. The trial began on August 3.
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The Ethiopian Airlines crash occurred a few months after the crash of a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8, which killed 189 people on October 29, 2018. Boeing admitted in 2019 that the MCAS anti-stall software contributed to these crashes. The crashes led to dozens of civil lawsuits, almost all settled out of court, the details of which remain confidential.
The first civil trial against Boeing related to the two crashes took place in November. The jury awarded 28.45 million dollars (24.7 million euros) to the widower of one of the victims. In May, the family of a 24-year-old American woman received compensation of 49.5 million dollars (42.9 million euros).
Dan Webb, an attorney for the aircraft manufacturer, stated in court at the time that he agreed with the attorney for Samya Stumo’s family that they should receive “substantial financial compensation for the pain suffered.”
“Our only disagreement relates to the exact amount of this compensation,” he noted.
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Following this latest trial in Chicago, only two lawsuits related to the crash remain open. In the case of the Lion Air crash in October 2018, the final lawsuit resulted in a settlement last February. After numerous twists and turns, all criminal charges against Boeing for the two crashes were dropped in November 2025.
