Boeing Settles 737 Max Crash Suit, Avoids First Chicago Jury Trial

Boeing Co. has reached a confidential settlement with Canadian citizen Paul Njoroge, whose wife, three children and mother-in-law were among the 157 people killed when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa on 10 March 2019. The accord, concluded on 11 July, avoids what would have been the first jury trial stemming from the disaster, which had been scheduled to open on 14 July in U.S. federal court in Chicago to determine damages. Njoroge, 41, had planned to seek millions of dollars in compensation and to testify about the personal and financial toll of the loss. His case was one of dozens brought in U.S. courts after Boeing in 2021 accepted responsibility for the crash, enabling families from 35 countries to pursue individual claims. Several other families have already settled under similarly undisclosed terms. The Ethiopian accident, together with a 2018 Lion Air crash in Indonesia, led regulators worldwide to ground Boeing’s bestselling 737 Max for nearly two years until software linked to the jets’ anti-stall system was redesigned. The two incidents claimed a combined 346 lives and triggered multiple probes into the company’s safety practices. Boeing this year reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid criminal prosecution related to the crashes.