On March 10, 2019, at 8:44 a.m. local time, Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 crashed six minutes after it took off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (ADD). All 157 on board lost their lives, including Irish United Nations employee Michael Ryan. His widow has brought a successful civil lawsuit against the aircraft manufacturer, Boeing.
Boeing 737 MAX’s infamous period
The Chicago jury awarded $29 million in damages to Ryan’s widow, Naoise Connolly Ryan. Her lawyer Steven C. Marks said:
“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.”
In a statement, an unnamed Boeing spokesperson said:
“We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. 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.”
The similar tragedy of Lion Air Flight 610 claimed the lives of 181 people on board when the Boeing 737 MAX crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff on Oct. 29, 2018.
Reports at the time from both the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) and Ethiopia’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau attributed both accidents to the activation of the automated safety ‘Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System’ (MCAS). The software repeatedly pushed the aircraft’s nose into an unsafe nose-down position, which pilots could not override. After these devastating incidents, all 387 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft were grounded worldwide.
Memorial page
Michael Ryan’s United Nations (UN) memorial page states he “helped bring assistance to vulnerable people in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.” Ryan was working as an engineer for the UN World Food Programme at the time of his death, along with six other colleagues.
In March of this year, shareholders also sued Boeing, alleging that the company made misleading safety statements about the B737 MAX aircraft.
Travel Radar expresses our condolences to all the victims and families involved in these tragic air crashes.
