Jury Orders Boeing to Pay $49.5 Million in Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Crash Case

Chicago. A jury in a Chicago court has ordered domestic aircraft manufacturer Boeing to pay $49.5 million in compensation to the family of a woman who lost her life in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash.

The jury awarded the money to the family of the deceased Samya Stumo on various counts late Wednesday night. The court decided to provide $21 million for the pain and suffering Samya endured during the accident, $16.5 million for the loss of companionship and support to the family, and $12 million for the family's grief and suffering.

This is the second largest jury verdict related to the fatal crash. In November, another jury had ordered Boeing to pay more than $28 million in compensation to the family of a United Nations environmentalist who died in the crash. A total of 346 people died in two fatal accidents involving Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019. Since then, dozens of lawsuits have been filed against Boeing.

24-year-old Samya Stumo was working for the non-profit organization Thinkwell. She was traveling as a passenger on a flight from Ethiopia to Nairobi, Kenya. Although Boeing has not denied its responsibility for the accident, the court dismissed the punitive damages sought against the company's top officials and aircraft parts manufacturers.

Now, the Stumo family's lawyers are knocking on the doors of the appellate court to reinstate such claims. Boeing has already settled most of the civil lawsuits related to these two accidents. The company is said to have spent billions of dollars through compensation, non-prosecution agreements, and other payments.