Ethiopian Airlines Crash: Irish Family Awarded $29m
A Chicago jury has awarded $29 million (€25.12 million) in damages to the family of Michael “Mick” Ryan, the Irish UN engineer who was among the 157 people killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash, The Journal reports. The civil suit against Boeing was brought by his widow, Naoise Connolly Ryan.Originally from Lahinch in Co Clare, Ryan lived in Cork before relocating to Rome, where he served as deputy chief engineer with the UN's World Food Programme, according to Extra.ie. He was 39 at the time of the crash, and had worked through the Ebola crisis in Liberia and with Rohingya refugees.A UN memorial page also recognises his work in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Ethiopia.Ahead of the verdict, the family's attorney Steven Marks had described his client as “committed to seeking accountability and justice from a jury”.The case is one of the last remaining civil suits against Boeing arising from the two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, which claimed 346 lives altogether. The vast majority of claims have been settled out of court on undisclosed terms.
