By Dan Catchpole
Jan 14 (Reuters) – Boeing has reached tentative settlements with a Canadian man who lost six relatives in the 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Air 737 MAX jet shortly after takeoff.
A jury had already been selected for the cases, which had been combined into a single trial in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The terms of the settlements, which were reached late Tuesday, were not released.
The cases concerned three of Manant Vaidya’s six family members who died in the crash – his parents, Pannagesh and Hansini Vaidya, and his sister, Kosha Vaidya.
Kosha’s husband, Preritkumar Dixit, and their two children, Ashka and Anushka Dixit, also died in the crash. Boeing settled lawsuits concerning their deaths in 2025. All six victims lived in Canada, according to Clifford Law Firm, which represented Manant Vaidya.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed five months after Lion Air Flight 610, another 737 MAX, crashed into the Java Sea. An automated flight control system contributed to both crashes, which killed a total of 346 people.
The U.S. planemaker has settled more than 90% of the dozens of civil lawsuits related to the two accidents, paying out billions of dollars in compensation through lawsuits, a deferred prosecution agreement and other payments, Boeing previously told Reuters.
The two accidents led to a 20-month grounding of the company’s best-selling jet and cost Boeing more than $20 billion.
“We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302,” a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We made an upfront commitment to fully and fairly compensate the families of those who were lost and have accepted legal responsibility for the accidents in these proceedings.
“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. We will continue to work to resolve the claims of the family members impacted by these accidents.”
(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Stephen Coates)
