A jury in Chicago has awarded $29m (£21.5m) in damages to the family of Michael 'Mick' Ryan, an Irish United Nations worker who died in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash. The sum was awarded to Ryan's widow, Naoise Connolly Ryan, following a civil suit she brought against Boeing, and her lawyers have called the verdict an important step toward accountability.
Ryan, a father of two who lived in Cork but was originally from County Clare, worked as an engineer with the United Nations World Food Programme. He was one of 157 people who died when Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 went down in March 2019.
According to RTÉ News, this case is one of the final remaining civil suits still pending against Boeing over the two fatal MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. The outlet also reports that Boeing has apologised for the disasters and acknowledged that faulty anti-stall software played a role in both incidents.
What did Ryan's lawyers say?
Steven C Marks, who represented Connolly Ryan, said the verdict could not undo the family's loss but reflected careful consideration by the jury.
While no financial award can ever replace a life or undo the profound loss his family has endured, we are grateful that the jury carefully considered the evidence and reached this decision.
Marks praised Connolly Ryan's determination throughout the legal process, saying his firm, Podhurst Orseck, had been honoured to support her.
Although the verdict marks a significant milestone, the broader effort to hold Boeing responsible for this tragedy, and to help prevent anything like it from happening again, is just as important.
Per RTÉ News, Ryan's legal team indicated that the family was focused on securing accountability and justice through a jury verdict rather than accepting a settlement directly from Boeing.
How does this compare with other Boeing settlements?
This is not the first large payout tied to the same flight. In May 2026, a separate Chicago jury awarded $49.5m to the family of Samya Stumo, another passenger who died on Flight ET302, according to RTÉ News. Together, the two MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people worldwide.
A federal judge had earlier ruled that families of the Ethiopian Airlines victims could seek damages for the pain and terror endured by passengers in the moments before the crash, according to the Irish Examiner. That ruling also permitted expert testimony on victims' suffering, though families agreed not to pursue punitive damages. The compensation proceedings were intended to address burial costs, lost income and grief suffered by immediate relatives.
What happened on the Ethiopian Airlines flight?
Flight ET302 departed Addis Ababa at 08:38 local time (05:38 GMT) on 10 March 2019, bound for Nairobi, Kenya, on a journey expected to last around two hours. Six minutes into the flight, at 08:44, the aircraft crashed roughly 30 miles southeast of the airport near the town of Bishoftu.
The force of the impact drove both engines 10m (32ft) into the ground, leaving a crater 28m wide and 40m long. Ethiopia's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found that take-off appeared normal, but shortly afterward two sensors measuring the plane's flight angle began producing conflicting readings.
This discrepancy triggered an automated safety system that repeatedly forced the plane's nose downward, a malfunction also identified in the earlier Lion Air crash involving the same aircraft model. The 2019 investigation indicated that although the pilots attempted to disengage the system and manually stabilise the aircraft, the system continued pushing the nose down until the plane crashed.
What happens next in the Boeing litigation?
According to RTÉ News, the Ryan family's case is among the last civil suits still working through the courts stemming from the two MAX disasters, suggesting the broader legal reckoning over the crashes is nearing its conclusion. Boeing has not yet responded to a request for comment on the Chicago jury's decision.
- Michael Ryan, from County Clare and living in Cork, died in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines MAX crash along with 156 others.
- A Chicago jury awarded his family $29m in damages in a civil suit against Boeing.
- The case is one of the final pending civil suits from the 2018 and 2019 MAX crashes, which killed 346 people combined.
- In May 2026, a separate jury awarded $49.5m to the family of fellow passenger Samya Stumo.
- A federal judge previously allowed families to seek damages for victims' pain and terror before impact.
