Boeing has reached a settlement with Paul Njoroge, a Toronto-based man who lost his wife, three children, and mother-in-law in the March 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, his lawyer confirmed on Friday.
The terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Njoroge, 41, was set to take the US planemaker to trial on Monday in the first courtroom case stemming from the two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people in total.
The crash, which led to the global grounding of Boeing’s bestselling aircraft for 20 months, claimed the lives of 157 people, including Njoroge’s wife, Carolyne, their children Ryan (6), Kellie (4), nine-month-old Rubi, and his mother-in-law.
Boeing also avoided trial in April after settling with the families of two other victims from the same crash.
The company has declined to comment on the latest settlement. It has, however, settled more than 90% of civil cases relating to the 2018 Lion Air and 2019 Ethiopian Airlines disasters, paying out billions of dollars through lawsuits, regulatory settlements, and a deferred prosecution agreement.
Robert Clifford, Njoroge’s attorney, is also representing the families of six more victims in another trial set for 3 November.
Earlier this month, Boeing and the US Department of Justice asked a judge to approve a plea agreement allowing the company to avoid prosecution. Under the deal, Boeing would plead guilty to defrauding regulators but avoid being labelled a convicted felon or subjected to independent oversight. The proposal has sparked strong opposition from relatives of the crash victims.
The charge stems from Boeing’s admission that it misled US authorities about the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), the flight control software linked to both crashes.
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