Boeing Averts Civil Trial Over Ethiopia Crash: Settlement Reached with Families of Victims
U.S. civil case for Ethiopian Boeing crash abruptly discontinued at the last moment
Skip the courthouse drama! Boeing has successfully sidestepped a civil trial in Chicago over the 2019 Ethiopia crash of a Boeing 737 MAX, thanks to an out-of-court settlement reached the night before the trial was due to begin. The settlements, sealed with the families of Darcy Belanger and Antoine Lewis, were brokered just in the nick of time, according to law firm Clifford. Details of the agreements remain hush-hush.
The two families were set to bring claims against Boeing, marking the first such case in the United States regarding this tragic incident. The plane in question crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019, with a grim toll of 157 fatalities from 35 countries, including five Germans.
The worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX followed in the aftermath of this crash, just a few months after a similar tragedy off the Indonesian island of Java had already claimed the lives of 189 people aboard another Boeing 737 MAX. Boeing faced a severe crisis during the grounding, which was gradually lifted from the end of 2020.
Initially, 155 victims' families in Ethiopia had filed lawsuits against Boeing for wrongful death, negligence, and other charges between April 2019 and March 2021. The majority of these cases have since been settled out of court. As of late March, there were 18 civil lawsuits still pending in the U.S. over the Ethiopia crash, with at least four of these cases subsequently settled out of court.
Root causes of the crash were found in issues with the MCAS system and inadequate pilot training. Boeing admitted to problems with the stabilization software on the 737 MAX in April 2019 and subsequently revised the software. However, Boeing still faces a criminal trial in June, alleging misleading regulation authorities about the 737 MAX's safety.
Sources: [ntv.de, afp]
Insights:
- Darcy Belanger was a 46-year-old director of professional development at PCL Construction, en route to a UN Environmental Assembly. Antoine Lewis, meanwhile, was a 39-year-old U.S. Army Captain exploring business opportunities in Africa when the tragedy struck.
- Lawyer Mark Lindquist, representing the Belanger family, expressed satisfaction with the settlement, praising accountability and closure. Antonio M. Romanucci, representing the Lewis family, emphasized that the settlement marked closure for the widow but could never compensate for the loss.
I am not sure what the exact terms of the out-of-court settlements between Boeing and the families of Darcy Belanger and Antoine Lewis are, as the details remain confidential. The lawsuits from these two families were among the civil lawsuits filed against Boeing following the crash of the Boeing 737 MAX in Ethiopia, which resulted in lawsuits over wrongful death, negligence, and other charges. Despite settling out of court, Boeing still faces a criminal trial in June, alleging misleading regulatory authorities about the 737 MAX's safety.
