Boeing has reached settlements with the families of two people killed in the 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX aircraft, the night before the trial was set to commence in Chicago.
This trial had been expected to be the first against Boeing after two fatal 737 MAX crashes six years ago.
Law firms representing the families of the two victims, Antoine Lewis, 39, from Chicago, and Darcy Belanger, 46, from Denver, announced on Sunday night that a settlement had been reached with the planemaker, just hours before a trial was set to begin in Chicago's federal district court on April 7, 2025.
Lewis and Belanger were two of eight Americans who were killed on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, which crashed shortly after take-off on the morning of March 10, 2019, from Addis Ababa airport. In total 157 died as a result of the crash.
Lewis was a US Army Captain from Chicago and was taking a trip to Africa to investigate opportunities to begin a logistics business. Belanger was a founding member of an environmental non-profit group and at the time of the crash was flying to a United Nations Environmental Assembly where he was scheduled to speak.
The cause of the 2019 crash related to a malfunction in the aircraft's Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), an automated system designed to push the nose of the aircraft down if it detects a stall risk, based on inputs from the angle of attack sensors.
On flight 302, one of these sensors gave faulty readings, causing the MCAS to incorrectly activate and push the plane’s nose down.
A spokesperson for Boeing commented: “We made an upfront commitment to fully and fairly compensate the families and accepted legal responsibility for the accidents. We will continue to work to fairly resolve the claims of the family members."
Since Boeing previously accepted legal responsibility for the crash of flight 302, these proceedings focus on the amount of compensation owed.
To date, Boeing has settled more than 90% of claims from the two 737 MAX accidents in 2018 and 2019.
Boeing also noted that it has “voluntarily paid billions of dollars in compensation” to the families and their lawyers. This includes compensation through this civil litigation process, payments under the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), and other compensation since the accidents
Boeing originally agreed to pay $2.1bn in a 2021 DPA with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which included $500 million to a victim's fund, set up for the families of those who died in two separate 737 MAX crashes, in addition to a $243 million criminal penalty.
Robert Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices, who is lead counsel in the overall litigation said that “the fight against Boeing will continue for the remaining cases”, with the next trial beginning on July 14, 2025, and another trial for victims’ families currently scheduled for November 3, 2025.