Jury Selected for Boeing Trial Over 2019 Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX Crash

Opening arguments are set to begin Wednesday, November 5, in Chicago in the first U.S. civil trial against Boeing stemming from the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash that killed all 157 people on board. After a full day of jury selection at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, five women and three men were chosen to hear the case, which marks a major legal milestone in the years-long battle over the safety of Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft.

The trial centers on lawsuits filed by family members of 155 victims between April 2019 and March 2021, alleging wrongful death, negligence, and corporate misconduct. The families accuse Boeing of prioritizing profit and production speed over safety, particularly in its design and handling of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which was found to have caused both the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the 2018 Lion Air crash in Indonesia.

Judge Jorge Alonso, who is overseeing all civil claims related to the Ethiopian crash, presided over jury selection on Tuesday. Robert Clifford, lead counsel for one of the plaintiffs, said the judge sought to ensure a fair and unbiased panel. “Even if he asked more questions than usual, it wouldn’t have surprised me. A case as complex as this could easily have taken two days to select a jury,” Clifford told AFP.

Each side will have 90 minutes to present its opening arguments on Wednesday. Clifford said that while Boeing had previously reached last-minute settlements in similar lawsuits, no active negotiations are currently underway. “The battle lines are drawn, and there’s no active settlement discussion going on,” he stated.

The eight-person jury will weigh evidence concerning the March 10, 2019, crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which went down just six minutes after departing Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi. Among the principal plaintiffs are the families of Shikha Garg of India and Mercy Ndivo of Kenya. Garg, a United Nations Development Program consultant who attended the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, was traveling to Nairobi for a UN Environment Assembly. Ndivo, a mother of one, was returning home from London after completing a master’s degree in accountancy.

Boeing has publicly apologized for the two 737 MAX disasters, which together claimed 346 lives, and has said it remains committed to resolving claims “fairly and responsibly.” In a statement last October, Boeing acknowledged that “the design of the MCAS system contributed to these events” and that the company has “accepted responsibility for the MAX crashes publicly and in civil litigation.”

The 737 MAX was grounded globally for nearly two years following the Ethiopian Airlines accident, prompting widespread scrutiny of Boeing’s safety culture and its relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Internal investigations revealed that pilots were not adequately informed about the MCAS system, which automatically pushed the aircraft’s nose downward based on faulty sensor data.

While Boeing has settled most claims from Lion Air victims, one case remains open. The outcome of this Chicago trial could influence remaining lawsuits and set an important precedent for corporate accountability in aviation safety.

Sources: AirGuide Business airguide.info, bing.com, yahoo.com