Boeing to face civil trial over 2019 MAX crash

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

The trial, scheduled for federal court in Chicago, originally included six plaintiffs, but “all but one” have settled, a person close to the litigation told AFP this week.

Barring an accord, the case will be Boeing’s first civil trial over the MAX crashes.

A settlement, which would need court approval, is still possible, even after the proceedings start.

But the source told AFP the case is expected to go to trial, a view held by a second legal source.

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

Nukavarapu, who was single and without children, boarded a 737 MAX on March 10, 2019 in Addis Ababa in a flight bound for Nairobi to visit her sister who had just given birth, according to a complaint.

But the jet, which had been delivered in November 2018, crashed just six minutes after taking off, killing everyone on board.

More trials expected

Relatives of 155 victims were deposed by the court between April 2019 and March 2021 in wrongful death cases due to negligence, according to legal filings.

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

The cases have been split into groups, with the next trial scheduled for April 2025 unless all the suits are settled.

Boeing has “accepted responsibility for the MAX crashes publicly and in civil litigation because the design of the MCAS … contributed to these events,” an attorney for Boeing said at an October 11 court hearing.

The MCAS was a flight stabilizing system that malfunctioned in both the Ethiopian Airlines and in the October 2018 Lion Air crash in Indonesia, which killed 189 people.

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

According to Boeing, more than 90 percent of the cases stemming from the crashes have been settled. The company has not disclosed the overall financial hit from these cases.

“Boeing has paid billions of dollars to the crash families and their lawyers in connection with civil litigation,” Boeing attorney said at the October 11 hearing, which took place in Texas and involves a Department of Justice criminal case over the MAX.

Dozens of plaintiffs have also been deposed in civil litigation over the Lion Air crash, with 46 represented by Seattle law firm Herrmann.

The Texas litigation concerns a new deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice after DOJ concluded Boeing flouted a $2.5 billion January 2021 criminal settlement over fraud charges related to the MAX certification.

In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to fraud as part of the latest DPA, but the accord has yet to be accepted by a federal judge.