A CHICAGO jury has awarded US$29 million (RM118.5 million) in damages to the family of an Irish-born United Nations worker who was killed in the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash in 2019, a US court spokesman said yesterday.
The civil lawsuit was filed against Boeing by Naoise Connolly Ryan, the widow of Michael Ryan, a World Food Programme engineer who was among 157 people killed when the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa.
Ryan, who was 39 at the time of the crash, had previously worked during the Ebola crisis in Liberia and with Rohingya refugees.
The verdict is among the final civil cases against Boeing arising from the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, which collectively claimed 346 lives.
Most of the lawsuits have been settled out of court under confidential terms.
However, Ryan’s lawyer, Steven Marks, said his client had been determined to seek accountability and justice through a jury rather than accept a direct payment from Boeing.
AFP reported on Thursday that Boeing apologised for the crashes and acknowledged that its anti-stall software system, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), played a role in both accidents.
The aircraft manufacturer had not responded to requests for comment on the latest verdict.
In May, a Chicago jury awarded US$49.5 million (RM202.3 million) to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who was also killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
The two crashes — involving Lion Air in Indonesia in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019 — prompted the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX and triggered intense scrutiny of Boeing’s aircraft design, certification and safety practices. - August 13, 2026
