A jury in federal court in Chicago ordered Boeing on Wednesday to pay more than $28 million to the family of a United Nations environmental worker who was killed in the 2019 crash of a 737 MAX jet in Ethiopia.

The verdict awarded to the family of Shikha Garg is the first in the dozens of lawsuits filed in the wake of that crash and another in Indonesia in 2018, which combined killed 346 people.

After about two hours of deliberation, a jury in federal court in Chicago returned with an award that included $10 million for grief, $10 million for Garg’s pain and suffering, and other compensation.

“We happily accept the verdict. We came here for a jury trial and it’s absolutely acceptable,” Garg’s widower, Soumya Bhattacharya, told AFP.

Boeing expressed regret about the deadly 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 the vast majority of these claims through settlements, families are also entitled to pursue their claims through damages trials in court, and we respect their right to do so.”

Attorneys representing Bhattacharya had argued the estate should receive between $80 and $230 million, while Boeing’s counsel had proposed $11.95 million.

The lawsuits stem from the March 10, 2019, flight that crashed six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.

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Garg’s was the first case to go to trial after Boeing reached dozens of other civil settlements in cases brought by family members from the Ethiopian Airlines crash and from the Lion Air 737 MAX crash in 2018.

Boeing had accepted responsibility for the Ethiopian Airlines crash and acknowledged the need to pay damages to Garg’s survivors.

But the trial weighed the sum, with Boeing’s attorney contesting testimony from a plaintiff witness on the extent to which Garg suffered before dying.

– Courtroom Apology –

During this closing argument, Boeing attorney Dan Webb stressed the company’s remorse, turning to Bhattacharya to express Boeing’s apology in court.

Webb also told the jury that they must decide on one issue: a fair and reasonable amount of damages. He added that the jury must not base their decision on sympathy, echoing trial instructions from Judge Jorge Alonso.

“This trial, for example, does not involve damages punishing Boeing; this trial only has to do with compensation,” Webb said.

“There is nothing in this case to punish Boeing, and yet when I sat here and heard Mr. Specter asking for $80 to $230 million, that’s not fair and reasonable compensation. He is asking to punish Boeing.”

Garg had been a consultant for the United Nations Development Program, and had been traveling to Nairobi for a UN Environment Assembly.

She married three months earlier and had planned to travel with her husband, who canceled his flight at the last minute because of a meeting.

In a closing statement, plaintiff’s attorney Shanin Specter emphasised the loss of Garg’s potential when she died. He touched on Bhattacharya’s comments on the witness stand, when he described his late wife as a “brilliant” young professional studying renewable energy.

“Part of Soumya’s grief is knowing that he doesn’t get to see her do that,” Specter said. “He doesn’t get to share that with her.”

AFP