US jury orders Boeing to pay $29 million to family of Irish UN engineer killed in 737 MAX crash

The crash and the victim

Michael "Mick" Ryan, a 39-year-old Irish engineer working for the UN World Food Programme, was one of 157 people killed when Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 crashed six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on 10 March 2019. The Boeing 737 MAX 8, delivered only months earlier, was en route to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. Among the dead were eight Italians and 21 UN staff, including Ryan, who were travelling to attend the UN Environment Assembly. Ryan, a father of two from County Clare, had previously worked during the Ebola crisis in Liberia and with Rohingya refugees. A UN commemorative page recognised his work in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Ethiopia. The aircraft was new, had undergone maintenance the month before the crash, and had accumulated only 1,200 flight hours. The pilot had requested to return to Addis Ababa after noticing difficulties shortly after departure.

The lawsuit and verdict

The civil lawsuit was filed by Ryan's widow, Naoise Connolly Ryan, who refused voluntary payments from Boeing, characterising the money as "blood money." She directed her share of $1.65 million to an aviation safety foundation and demanded a jury trial rather than accepting a confidential settlement. The proceedings opened on 3 August at a federal court in Chicago. On 13 August, a jury ordered Boeing to pay $29 million in damages to the family. Ryan's lawyer, Steven Marks, had said his client was "determined to obtain accountability and justice from a jury and not to accept money directly from Boeing."

The two MAX crashes

The Ethiopian Airlines crash was the second involving a 737 MAX in less than six months, after Lion Air flight 610 crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, Indonesia, on 29 October 2018, killing 189 people. Together, the two accidents caused 346 deaths. Boeing acknowledged as early as 2019 that the MCAS anti-stall flight control software contributed to both crashes, and the company apologised for the incidents. The crashes prompted dozens of civil lawsuits, the vast majority of which were resolved through out-of-court settlements with confidential terms.

Prior civil trials

The first civil trial against Boeing linked to the two crashes took place in November 2025, when a jury awarded $28.45 million to the husband of a victim. In May 2026, the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who died on the same flight while travelling to Kenya for her first assignment with the NGO ThinkWell, was awarded $49.5 million. Lawyers for Stumo's family accused the company of negligence. Boeing's lawyer, Dan Webb, told the court he agreed the family should receive significant financial compensation for the pain inflicted.

Our only disagreement concerns the exact amount of this compensation.

What remains

After the Ryan verdict, only two lawsuits related to the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash remain open. The last case tied to the Lion Air crash was settled at the end of February 2026. All criminal prosecutions against Boeing for both accidents were withdrawn in November 2025 after numerous twists and turns.