A federal court jury in Illinois has ordered Boeing to pay $28 million to the family of a UN consultant who was killed in a 737 MAX 8 crash in Ethiopia in 2019.
The verdict was reached on Wednesday (November 12) on behalf of relatives of Shihka Garg, an Indian national who died on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 when it crashed near Addis Ababa six minutes after takeoff.
Boeing will pay an additional $3.45 million to Garg's husband, Soumya Bhattacharya, as part of an out-of-court settlement.
The Flight 302 crash killed all 149 passengers and eight crew members who were on board. Garg’s case was the first civil trial in relation to the crash.
Boeing has negotiated pre-trial settlements in dozens of wrongful death lawsuits filed in connection with the Flight 302 crash and with a similar crash that took place in Indonesia.
In 2019, Lion Air Flight 610, also a 737 MAX 8 aircraft, crashed over the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board.
In total, lawyers that said less than a dozen lawsuits related to the two incidents now remain unresolved.
In other Boeing legal news, last week a federal judge in Texas approved a Department of Justice (DOJ) request to dismiss its long-running criminal case against the manufacturer in connection with the two crashes.
In exchange, Boeing said it will pay and invest an additional $1.1bn in compensation for victims' families as well as internal safety and quality improvements.
On the same day the dismissal was approved, relatives of the victims of the Flight 302 crash communicated through counsel that they intend to appeal against the decision.
Clifford Law Offices, one of the firms working on the case, said that family members travelled from as far away as France, Ireland, and Canada to ask the judge to reject the non-prosecution agreement.
Tracy Brammeier, partner of Clifford Law Offices, said that Judge Reed O'Connor agreed with the victims' desire to pursue criminal charges in his personal opinion, but felt unable to reject the non-prosecution agreement in his legal opinion.
“The judge recognizes there is a miscarriage of justice on the part of the government's decision not to prosecute this case,” she said.
“Unfortunately, he feels the power to right this wrong is limited by legal precedent.
“The families are disappointed by the outcome, but will act quickly to protect the interests of the families and the public on appeal.”
In January 2021, the DOJ charged Boeing with conspiracy to defraud the FAA in its certification of the defective MAX 8 aircraft, and reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing.
In May 2024, following the blowout of an unsecured door plug aboard an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX, the DOJ found that Boeing had breached the deferred prosecution agreement by not putting in place appropriate corporate compliance and safety measures.
In July 2024, the DOJ and Boeing reached a deal in which Boeing was to plead guilty.
The families objected to the terms as not punitive enough, and in December 2024, Judge O’Connor rejected the deal.
However, rather than returning with a more stringent punishment, the DOJ presented Boeing with the lesser punishment of a non-prosecution agreement, plus penalties and compensation to be paid to all 346 families of the crash victims.
On November 6, Judge O’Connor approved the non-prosecution agreement and granted the government’s motion to dismiss.