By David Shepardson
(Reuters) – U.S. planemaker Boeing Co settled lawsuits with the families of two victims killed in the March 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX on the eve of trial, lawyers for the families said.
The trial in the U.S. District Court in Chicago was set to be the first against the planemaker stemming from two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that led to the bestselling plane’s 20-month grounding and cost Boeing more than $20 billion.
Boeing agreed in 2021 to acknowledge liability for compensatory damages in lawsuits filed by families of the 157 people killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash.
The families of Antoine Lewis and Darcy Belanger are settling.
Lewis, 39, was a U.S. Army captain on military leave taking a trip to Africa to investigate opportunities to begin a logistics business, while Belanger, 46, of Denver, Colorado, was flying to a United Nations Environmental Assembly where he was scheduled to speak.
Boeing did not immediately comment. Terms of the settlements were not released.
There are two other trials set for July and November.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said last week that the planemaker is in discussions with the U.S. Justice Department to reach a revised plea agreement in a criminal fraud case stemming from the planemaker’s alleged misrepresentations to regulators about a key safety system on the 737 MAX.
Boeing agreed in July to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after two fatal 737 MAX crashes and to pay a fine of up to $487.2 million. A judge set a June 23 trial date if no final agreement is reached.
Relatives of the victims of the two 737 MAX crashes have called the plea agreement a “sweetheart” deal that failed to adequately hold Boeing accountable for the deaths of their loved ones.
The DOJ found in May that Boeing had violated a 2021 agreement that had shielded it from prosecution over the crashes. Prosecutors then decided to criminally charge Boeing and negotiate the current plea deal.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter)
