Boeing reaches settlement to avert civil trial in MAX crash

Beleaguered aviation giant Boeing reached a last-minute settlement Monday with the family of a woman killed in the crash of a 737 MAX jetliner in 2019, averting a federal civil trial.

Three sources close to the case told AFP that a settlement had been agreed upon out of court, but they gave no details.

The crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane killed 157 people. The trial was set to begin Tuesday in Chicago.

It originally involved six plaintiffs but until now all but one had settled, according to a source familiar with the case.

The hearing on Tuesday will take place to inform Judge Jorge Alonso of the settlement, who must approve the deal for it to be officially settled, the source said.

"It is a damage-only trial, meaning no evidence regarding the liability of Boeing will be presented," the source told AFP.

The remaining case involved Manisha Nukavarapu, an Indian-born woman who was on board Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 on March 10, 2019, when the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board.

Lawyers for the plaintiff's family did not respond to a request for comment by AFP.

The initial complaint, obtained by AFP, said Nukavarapu was in her second year of medical school residency at East Tennessee State University, where she planned to become an endocrinologist.

She had planned to take the Ethiopian Airlines flight to visit her sister in Kenya.

A court document from June 2023 said that relatives of 115 victims filed civil complaints against Boeing for wrongful death and negligence, among other things, between April 2019 and March 2021.

As of October 22, there were still "30 cases pending on behalf of 29 decedents" according to a source close to the legal proceedings.

The complaints have been divided into several groups, with the next group scheduled to go to trial on April 7, 2025.

Boeing has "accepted responsibility for the MAX crashes publicly and in civil litigation because the design of the MCAS...contributed to these events," a lawyer for Boeing said during an October hearing.

MCAS, a flight stabilizing feature, was implicated in the Ethiopian Airlines crash and a 737 MAX 8 jet operated by Lion Air, which crashed on October 29, 2018, about 10 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia. All 189 people aboard the plane died.

After the two 737 MAX crashes, the entire 737 MAX fleet were grounded for more than 20 months for authorities to conduct an investigation.

According to Boeing, more than 90% of the civil complaints filed about the two crashes have been resolved.

"Boeing has paid billions of dollars to the crash families and their lawyers in connection with civil litigation," an attorney for Boeing, Mark Filip, said at a hearing on October 11.