Court ruling on Boeing 737 Max crash

A Chicago court has ordered Boeing to pay $29 million (about 25 million euros) in compensation to the family of one of the victims of the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crash.

The decision was made in one of the last civil lawsuits pending in connection with the tragedy, which claimed the lives of 157 people. The lawsuit was filed by the widow of Irishman Michael Ryan, who worked for the UN World Food Program.

Boeing has previously had to make multimillion-dollar payments in other cases related to this plane crash. However, in recent years, most of the relatives of the victims have reached out-of-court settlements with the American aircraft manufacturer. The total amount paid by Boeing as part of such settlements was not disclosed.

On March 10, 2019, a Boeing 737 Max crashed six minutes after takeoff. All 157 people on board, including five German citizens, were killed.

This was the second major crash of the Boeing 737 Max in a short period of time. A few months earlier, in October 2018, a plane of the same model crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 people.

Investigations into both crashes revealed problems with the Boeing 737 Max's software and shortcomings in pilot training.

After that, flights of the Boeing 737 Max were temporarily suspended in many countries around the world. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) banned flights of this model. Similar restrictions were introduced in the United States, Canada, Russia and other countries.

The long-term grounding of the 737 Max has had serious financial consequences for Boeing, costing the company billions of dollars in losses.

Since 2020, restrictions on the 737 Max have been gradually lifted in various countries as Boeing has worked to address identified flaws and make changes to the aircraft's systems.