Boeing again avoids civil lawsuit related to 2019 crash

US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has once again narrowly avoided a federal civil lawsuit related to the March 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 by reaching a settlement before the scheduled start on Monday, a law firm told AFP. "The lawsuit has been settled for a confidential amount," said a spokeswoman for Clifford Law, which represented the plaintiff, Paul Njoroge. The announcement was made to Judge Jorge Alonso, who sits in a federal court in Chicago, Illinois, and centralizes all civil lawsuits filed following the crash, during a pretrial hearing held Friday afternoon.

On March 10, 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight ET302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed southeast of the Ethiopian capital six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board. Among them were Paul Njoroge's family: his wife Carolyne (33), his children Ryan (6), Kellie (4), and Rubi (9 months), as well as his mother-in-law Ann Karanja, who were traveling from Toronto to Nairobi.

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The trial was scheduled to last five to seven days before eight jurors. These trials are simply intended to determine the amount of compensation for relatives. Relatives of 155 victims filed lawsuits against Boeing between April 2019 and March 2021 for wrongful death and negligence, among other claims. To simplify the procedure, Judge Alonso divided the lawsuits into groups of five to six and set a trial date for each group. If all the claims in a group result in an out-of-court settlement, the lawsuit is dismissed.

But, in the exceptional case of Paul Njoroge, who lost his entire family, only his complaint was included in the trial scheduled for Monday. Boeing has thus far managed to avoid any trial by reaching, sometimes at the last minute, out-of-court settlements.

The aircraft manufacturer accepted responsibility for the crash because "the design of the MCAS (anti-stall software) contributed to these events." This software was also involved in the crash of a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian airline Lion Air, which crashed into the sea on October 29, 2018, about ten minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing 189 people.