The story begins in a Chicago federal courtroom on Wednesday. A jury ordered Boeing to pay $28.45 million to the family of Shikha Garg, the first civil trial verdict to emerge from the two 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people.
Garg was 32. A United Nations environmental worker from India, she boarded Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019, bound for Nairobi. Minutes after takeoff the jet plunged into the ground outside Bishoftu. Everyone on board died.
Five months earlier Lion Air Flight 610 had crashed into the Java Sea. An automated flight control system, MCAS, was later implicated in both accidents.
Wednesday’s verdict came after a trial that centered on whether the MAX was defectively designed and whether Boeing failed to warn passengers of the danger. Attorneys Shanin Specter and Elizabeth Crawford represented Garg’s family. They said the verdict “provides public accountability for Boeing’s wrongful conduct.”
Under a deal struck the same morning the family will receive $35.85 million — the verdict plus 26% interest — and Boeing will not appeal.
A Boeing spokeswoman said the company is deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones. “While we have resolved the vast majority of these claims through settlements, families are also entitled to pursue their claims through damages trials in court and we respect their right to do so,” she said.
Boeing has settled more than 90% of the dozens of civil lawsuits tied to the two crashes, paying billions in compensation, a deferred prosecution agreement and other payments. On November 5 the company settled three other Ethiopian Airlines crash lawsuits; terms were not disclosed.
For those involved the Chicago verdict changes the landscape. It sets a benchmark for any future trials and signals that Boeing’s remaining exposure may be measured in tens of millions per family.
The Garg family’s payout is the largest single award yet made public.
Sources
- Boeing ordered to pay more than $28 million to 737 MAX crash victim's family — TradingView News
- US jury orders Boeing to pay US$28.45m to family of Indian woman killed in 737 MAX crash | Malay Mail
