A jury in Chicago, in the United States, has ordered compensation of 29 million dollars, equivalent to approximately 25 million euros, in favor of the family of a United Nations official of Irish nationality, who was killed in the Boeing 737 Max plane crash in 2019.
The maximum compensation
The announcement, as reported by several international media, came from a spokesperson for the US court. The civil legal action was brought by Naoise Ryan, widow of Michael “Mick” Ryan, an engineer working for the UN World Food Program (WFP) and among the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, in which all 157 people on board died. Boeing found itself on trial again because of the 737 Max: Ryan’s family members, including his widow Naoise, had rejected the plea offer proposed by the Seattle giant to request compensation for damages through a jury trial.
“Blood money”
This is one of the numerous proceedings resulting from the two accidents of the Max model which occurred in the space of five months between 2018 and March 2019, which overall cost the lives of 346 people. The hearings opened on Monday at the Chicago court to evaluate the requests of the relatives of Ryan, an esteemed engineer who was also involved in the past on the Ebola epidemic in Liberia and in assisting Rohingya refugees. Naoise Ryan had rejected the voluntary compensation offered by Boeing to the families of the victims, labeling it as “blood money”, and decided to donate her personal share of 1.65 million dollars to a foundation that deals with aviation safety. Boeing expressed its condolences over the tragedies, admitting that malfunctioning anti-stall software was the trigger for both disasters. The aviation company managed to settle most of the legal disputes through confidential private settlements.
The previous one
Last May, another Chicago jury ordered Boeing to pay $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American girl who died on the same Ethiopian Airlines flight. During that hearing, the Stumo family’s lawyers accused the builder of gross negligence, while the relatives said they were devastated by grief. The young woman lost her life while traveling to Kenya to start her first assignment with ThinkWell, a public health NGO with the aim of extending access to medical care on the African and Asian continents.