Boeing to face civil lawsuit over 2019 MAX crash

NEW YORK –

Beleaguered aviation giant Boeing is set to face another hurdle next week when it faces a civil lawsuit over the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people in March 2019.

The trial, scheduled to take place in federal court in Chicago, initially included six plaintiffs, but “all but one” were settled, a person close to the case told AFP this week.

Without a settlement, the case would be Boeing’s first civil lawsuit related to the MAX crashes.

Reaching a settlement that requires court approval is still possible even after the trial has begun.

But the source told AFP that the case was expected to be presented to the court, according to a second legal source.

Plaintiffs in the case are relatives of Indian-born Manisha Nukavarapu, who is in her second year of medical school and specializes in endocrinology at East Tennessee State University.

According to the complaint, Nukavarapu, who was single and childless, boarded a 737 MAX flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on March 10, 2019, to visit her sister, who had just given birth.

However, the jet, which was delivered in November 2018, crashed just six minutes after takeoff, killing everyone on board.

More trials expected

According to legal documents, between April 2019 and March 2021, relatives of 155 victims in wrongful death cases due to negligence were interviewed by the court.

“As of today, there are 30 cases pending on behalf of 29 deceased,” a third legal source told AFP on October 22. he said.

The cases have been divided into groups, and the next hearing is scheduled for April 2025 if all cases are not resolved.

“Boeing has acknowledged liability publicly and in civil litigation for the MAX accidents because the design of the MCAS contributed to these events,” a Boeing lawyer said at the hearing on Oct. 11.

MCAS was a flight stabilization system that malfunctioned in the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October 2018 that killed 189 people.

The MAX entered commercial service in May 2017. Following the Ethiopian Airlines crash, the worldwide fleet was grounded for 20 months.

According to Boeing, more than 90 percent of the lawsuits arising from the crashes have been settled. The company did not disclose the overall financial loss resulting from these lawsuits.

“Boeing has paid billions of dollars to crash families and their attorneys in connection with the civil lawsuit,” a Boeing lawyer said at a Justice Department hearing in Texas on Oct. 11 involving the MAX criminal case.

Dozens of plaintiffs were deposed in the civil lawsuit over the Lion Air crash; 46 of them are represented by Seattle law firm Herrmann.

The Texas case concerns a new deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department after the Department concluded that Boeing violated a $2.5 billion criminal settlement in January 2021 over fraud charges related to MAX certification.

In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to fraud under the latest DPA, but the deal has not yet been accepted by a federal judge.