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Family of Irish plane crash victim awarded $29m in damages
The family of Michael ‘Mick’ Ryan, an Irish UN engineer killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max crash, has been awarded $29m (£21.5m) by a jury in Chicago. The verdict is significant because it holds Boeing financially accountable in one of the lawsuits arising from the crash, which killed all 157 people on board.
Ryan, a father of two from Cork originally from County Clare, worked for the UN World Food Programme on humanitarian projects in several countries. His widow, Naoise Connolly Ryan, brought the civil case; Boeing said it was deeply sorry for families affected by the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes, and that it respected their right to pursue claims, although it had settled nearly all others.
In short
- Boeing ordered to pay Ryan’s family $29m.
- Ryan died with 156 others in 2019.
- His widow pursued the civil lawsuit.
Explained simply
Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 was a Boeing 737 Max passenger flight that crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa in March 2019. All 157 people on board died, including Michael “Mick” Ryan, an Irish engineer working for the UN World Food Programme on humanitarian projects.
The crash followed a separate fatal 737 Max crash involving Lion Air in 2018. Families of people killed in the crashes brought civil claims against Boeing, the aircraft’s manufacturer; Ryan’s widow, Naoise Connolly Ryan, brought this case in Chicago. The case is part of wider efforts to establish Boeing’s financial responsibility for losses suffered by the victims’ families.
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