A Chicago jury has awarded $29 million to the family of an Irish-born United Nations employee who died in a 2019 Boeing 737 MAX crash, according to US court papers published late on Wednesday.
The civil suit was brought against Boeing by Naoise Connolly Ryan, widow of Michael Ryan, an engineer with the UN World Food Programme who was one of the victims in the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 people on board.
“The jury finds the total amount of damages suffered by Plaintiff is $29 million,” read a court entry in the US District Court in Chicago.
Ryan had worked during the Ebola crisis in Liberia and with Rohingya refugees. A UN memorial page to Ryan, who was 39 at the time of the crash, also recognised his work Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Ethiopia.
Out-of-court settlements
The case is one of the final remaining civil suits pending against Boeing following the pair of deadly MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that together claimed 346 lives.
The vast majority of claims have been settled out of court with undisclosed terms, but Ryan was among a group of plaintiffs who refused to settle.
“Seven years after the tragic and preventable loss of Michael ‘Mick’ Ryan, the verdict represents an important measure of accountability and justice for our client,” said Steven Marks, managing partner at Podhurst Orseck.
“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.”
Boeing says it is ‘deeply sorry’
Boeing has apologised for the crashes and acknowledged that defects with the aircraft’s anti-stall software was implicated in both accidents.
“We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302,” a Boeing spokesperson said.
“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.”
In a July 28 US securities filing, Boeing said there were fewer than five lawsuits pending by families of MAX victims.
‘Misled‘
The aircraft manufacturer is appealing a March 2026 US ruling that partially granted class certification to investors who claimed they were misled by Boeing’s reassurances after the first MAX crash.
In May, a Chicago jury awarded $49.5 million in damages to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who was killed on the same Ethiopian Airlines flight.
