Boeing reaches hush-hush deal with 737 MAX plane crash victim's kin, as Air India crash probe reveals THIS
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File Photo: Ethiopian Federal policemen stand at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 11, 2019. Photograph: (Reuters)
Clifford Law Offices, which represented Njoroge, as per AFP, confirmed the agreement late Friday, saying a mediator helped both sides reach a deal just before the trial began. "The case has settled for a confidential amount," a Clifford Law spokesperson said.
Boeing has reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with a man who lost his wife and three children in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash, allowing the company to sidestep what would have been a high-profile federal trial set to begin Monday (Jul 14). This comes on the heels of another Boeing crash, this one a Boeing Dreamliner 787. The Air India Flight AI171, which was to fly from Ahmedabad to London, crashed just seconds after takeoff before slamming into a medical college hostel. The tragic Boeing plane crash in India's Ahmedabad claimed 260 lives (241 onboard, 19 on the ground).
MAX 737 crash and Boeing's latest settlement
Paul Njoroge, a man whose family was killed in the 2019 plane crash that claimed 157 lives, was seeking damages from Boeing for wrongful death and negligence in a Chicago courtroom. His case was the last remaining lawsuit from the Ethiopian Airlines crash that hadn't been settled—until now. Clifford Law Offices, which represented Njoroge, as per AFP, confirmed the agreement late Friday, saying a mediator helped both sides reach a deal just before the trial began. "The case has settled for a confidential amount," a Clifford Law spokesperson said. "The aviation team at Clifford Law Offices has been working round-the-clock in preparation for trial, but the mediator was able to help the parties come to an agreement on behalf of Paul Njoroge," said senior partner Robert Clifford.
Njoroge, who lost his wife, mother-in-law, and three young children—including a nine-month-old infant—testified before the US Congress in 2019, saying he was haunted by visions of what his family must have experienced in their final moments. "It is difficult for me to think of anything else but the horror they must have felt," he said. "I cannot get it out of my mind."
Similar to the June 2025 Air India AI-171 plane crash, on 10 March 2019, a Boeing 737 MAX passenger airliner, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, crashed just minutes after takeoff. The crash killed all 149 passengers and 8 crew members on board.
Boeing's settlement spree: A pattern of avoidance?
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This latest settlement means Boeing continues its long streak of avoiding courtroom trials related to its 737 MAX aircraft, whose flawed MCAS flight-control system (a flight handling system) was implicated in both the 2018 Lion Air crash and the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which together killed 346 people.
Since 2019, Boeing has reached quiet settlements with more than 90 per cent of victims' families. But this tactic hasn't spared the company from mounting public scrutiny, especially after a string of new safety lapses, the most recent involving another Boeing aircraft operated by Air India. A preliminary report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) of India's Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, released early on Saturday (Jul 12), revealed that both the engines of the Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft bearing registration VT-ANB stopped functioning seconds after takeoff. This, according to the report, happened as the fuelling mechanisms switched from RUN to CUTOFF sequentially. An investigation involving the cockpit audio has unveiled the haunting last moments before the devastating crash as one of the pilots asked, “Why did you cut off?” before getting the answer “I didn’t” from the other pilot. Both engines experienced a momentary recovery after an initial loss of thrust but ultimately failed to stabilise.
