A Chicago jury has delivered a $29 million verdict against Boeing in a civil lawsuit brought by the widow of Michael 'Mick' Ryan, an Irish engineer who died in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crash.
Ryan, a father of two and a dedicated employee of the United Nations World Food Programme, was one of 157 people killed when the flight went down shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa.
The investigation into the tragedy revealed that an automated safety system repeatedly forced the plane's nose downward after receiving conflicting sensor data, a fatal flaw that mirrored the circumstances of a previous Lion Air crash.
While Boeing has settled the vast majority of claims related to the 737 Max disasters, this verdict underscores the legal consequences the company continues to face for its failures. Boeing issued a statement expressing regret for the loss of life and acknowledging the right of families to seek justice through the court system.
For the family of Michael Ryan, the verdict serves as a necessary step toward accountability for a tragedy that claimed a man whose humanitarian work spanned the globe, from building medical centers during the Ebola outbreak to constructing shelters for refugees in Bangladesh.
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