A Chicago jury awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash involving a Boeing 737 MAX. The decision came Wednesday after approximately two hours of jury deliberation. The crash, which occurred in March 2019, claimed 157 lives.
The suit filed by Stumo’s relatives was one of the few not settled out of court. Before the trial commenced on Monday, Stumo’s family and Boeing could not reach an agreement. Boeing stated, “We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. While we have resolved nearly all of these claims through settlements, families are entitled to pursue their claims through the court process, and we respect their right to do so.”
Stumo was traveling to Kenya for her first assignment with ThinkWell, a public health NGO focusing on healthcare access in Africa and Asia. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all on board. Earlier, a Lion Air crash in Indonesia had killed 189 people using the same Boeing 737 Max 8 model.
Following these incidents, Boeing grounded its 737 Max planes for nearly two years to implement necessary system upgrades. The company faced a criminal fraud charge related to these crashes, but federal prosecutors dropped the case after Boeing agreed to pay over $1.1 billion in fines and $445 million in compensation to the victims’ families. The agreement also required Boeing to improve internal safety and quality standards, allowing it to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators.
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