The troubled aviation behemoth Boeing is poised to face another challenge next week as it enters a civil trial concerning the Ethiopian Airlines crash from March 2019, which resulted in the loss of 157 lives.
This trial is set to take place in federal court in Chicago. Initially, there were six plaintiffs involved, but “all but one” have reached settlements, according to a source close to the legal proceedings who spoke to AFP this week.
Unless a settlement is reached, this trial will mark Boeing’s first civil court appearance regarding the MAX crashes.
A settlement, which must be approved by the court, remains a possibility even after the trial proceedings begin.
The plaintiffs include family members of Manisha Nukavarapu, an Indian-born medical student specializing in endocrinology at East Tennessee State University, who was in her second year of studies.
Ms. Nukavarapu boarded a 737 MAX flight on March 10, 2019, in Addis Ababa, intending to travel to Nairobi to visit her sister, who had just given birth, according to legal documents.
Tragically, the aircraft, delivered in November 2018, crashed only six minutes after takeoff, resulting in the deaths of everyone on board.
More trials are anticipated
The Ethiopian Airlines tragedy resulted in the death of 157 individuals.
Relatives of 155 of the victims were deposed by the court between April 2019 and March 2021 in wrongful death lawsuits citing negligence, according to legal filings.
“As of today, there are 30 cases still pending on behalf of 29 deceased individuals,” a third legal source informed AFP on October 22.
The cases have been organized into groups, with the next trial slated for April 2025, unless all lawsuits are settled beforehand.
Boeing has “publicly accepted responsibility for the MAX crashes in both public statements and civil litigation, acknowledging that the design of the MCAS contributed to these incidents,” stated an attorney for Boeing during an October 11 court hearing.
The MCAS, a flight stabilization system, malfunctioned in both the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the October 2018 Lion Air crash in Indonesia, which claimed 189 lives.
The MAX aircraft began commercial operations in May 2017, but the entire fleet was grounded for 20 months following the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
Boeing claims that over 90% of the cases resulting from these crashes have been resolved. However, the company has not revealed the total financial impact of these litigations.
“Boeing has compensated crash victims’ families and their attorneys with billions of dollars in relation to civil litigation,” a Boeing attorney said during the October 11 hearing, which took place in Texas and is part of a Department of Justice criminal case involving the MAX.
Numerous plaintiffs have also been deposed in civil litigations related to the Lion Air disaster, with 46 represented by the Seattle law firm Herrmann.
The Texas litigation is related to a new deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ after the department determined that Boeing violated a $2.5 billion (€932 million) criminal settlement from January 2021 concerning fraud charges linked to MAX certification.
In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to fraud as part of this latest deferred prosecution agreement, though it awaits federal judge approval.
