A federal jury in Chicago has ordered Boeing to pay $49.5 million in compensation to the family of a woman killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash involving the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The verdict marks another significant legal judgment tied to one of the most consequential aviation safety crises in modern history, stemming from a flight-control system flaw that contributed to two deadly crashes within months of each other.
The Ethiopian Airlines disaster occurred on March 10, 2019, shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 passengers and crew on board. It followed an earlier crash in Indonesia involving a Lion Air-operated 737 MAX, which claimed 189 lives. The back-to-back tragedies led to a worldwide grounding of the aircraft that lasted 20 months, while regulators and investigators examined the role of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a software feature later identified as a critical factor in both accidents.
In the latest ruling, jurors awarded the family of victim Samya Stumo $21 million for pain and emotional suffering, $16.5 million for loss of companionship, and $12 million for grief. While Boeing has already accepted liability in connection with the crash, attorneys for the family have indicated plans to seek reinstatement of punitive damages that were previously dismissed during trial proceedings, signaling that further legal disputes may follow despite the compensatory award.
The verdict adds to a growing series of civil judgments and settlements related to the 737 MAX crashes. In a separate case last year, another jury ordered Boeing to pay $28.45 million to the family of Shikha Garg, another victim of the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy. Across dozens of related lawsuits, Boeing has reached confidential settlements amounting to billions of dollars, reflecting the extensive financial and reputational damage stemming from the disasters.
Beyond civil litigation, Boeing has also faced significant regulatory and criminal scrutiny. In 2021, the company entered a deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities, agreeing to pay $2.5 billion after admitting it had misled the Federal Aviation Administration about aspects of the 737 MAX flight-control system. Although the Department of Justice later found Boeing in breach of that agreement in 2024, it ultimately dropped efforts to pursue a guilty plea under the administration of US President Donald Trump, and courts subsequently upheld the dismissal of the criminal case in early 2026.
