$37 Million Awarded to Family of Boeing 737 MAX Crash Victim

A Chicago jury has awarded $37.1 million in damages to the family of Michael 'Mick' Ryan, an Irish-born engineer who died in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash.

Ryan, a 39-year-old United Nations World Food Programme employee, was one of the 157 people killed when the plane crashed into a field near Addis Ababa. He had worked during the Ebola crisis in Liberia and with Rohingya refugees.

The civil suit against Boeing is one of the final remaining cases pending after two deadly MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 claimed 346 lives. The vast majority of claims have been settled out of court, but Ryan's widow, Naoise Connolly Ryan, had sought accountability and justice from a jury.

Boeing has apologized for the crashes and acknowledged that anti-stall software was implicated in both accidents. In May, another Chicago jury awarded $49.5 million in damages to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who was killed on the same flight.