CHICAGO — A Chicago jury has awarded $29 million in damages to the family of an Irish-born United Nations employee who was killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash, according to a U.S. court spokesperson, adding to a series of civil verdicts arising from two fatal MAX crashes.
The lawsuit was brought by Naoise Connolly Ryan, widow of Michael “Mick” Ryan, a World Food Programme engineer and father of two who was among 157 people killed when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019. Ryan, originally from County Clare, Ireland, had relocated to the World Food Programme’s headquarters in Rome.
The verdict follows several other jury awards involving the MAX crashes, while Boeing has settled most related wrongful-death claims without trials. In May, a Chicago jury awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash. In November 2025, another jury awarded more than $28 million to the family of Shikha Garg, a United Nations environmental consultant killed in the same disaster.
The Ethiopian Airlines crash came less than five months after Lion Air Flight 610, another 737 MAX, crashed into the Java Sea in Indonesia, killing all 189 people aboard. Together, the crashes killed 346 people and prompted the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX. Investigations identified problems involving the aircraft’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, which could repeatedly push the aircraft’s nose downward after receiving erroneous readings from a sensor.
Boeing has acknowledged responsibility for the crashes in the civil litigation. The company has said it is deeply sorry to the families who lost relatives in both accidents and that families have the right to pursue their claims through the courts. Most of the lawsuits have been resolved through confidential settlements.
The latest award adds to the legal and financial consequences of the MAX crashes, which became one of the most significant crises in Boeing’s history. The Ryan verdict provides compensation to his family while leaving the broader body of related claims largely resolved through settlements.
