US jury: Boeing owes $28 mn to family of Ethiopian Airlines crash victim

People stand near collected debris at the crash site of Ethiopia Airlines near Bishoftu, a town some 60 kilometres southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 11, 2019.[FILE]

A US jury in the first civil trial over a fatal Boeing 737 MAX crash determined Wednesday that the aircraft manufacturing giant owes $28.45 million to the family of a newly-wed Indian victim.

The case involves the survivors of Shikha Garg of New Delhi, who died in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, one of two fatal MAX crashes that together claimed 346 lives.

After about two hours of deliberation, a jury in federal court in Chicago returned with an award that included $10 million for grief, $10 million for Garg's pain and suffering, and other compensation.

"We happily accept the verdict. We came here for a jury trial and it's absolutely acceptable," Garg's widower, Soumya Bhattacharya, told AFP.

Boeing expressed regret about the deadly accidents.

"We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302," a Boeing spokesperson said.

"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."

Attorneys representing Bhattacharya had argued the estate should receive between $80 and $230 million, while Boeing's counsel had proposed $11.95 million.

The lawsuits stem from the March 10, 2019 flight that crashed six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.

Garg's was the first case to go to trial after Boeing reached dozens of other civil settlements in cases brought by family members from the Ethiopian Airlines crash and from the Lion Air 737 MAX crash in 2018.

Boeing had accepted responsibility for the Ethiopian Airlines crash and acknowledged the need to pay damages to Garg's survivors.

But the trial weighed the sum, with Boeing's attorney contesting testimony from a plaintiff witness on the extent that Garg suffered prior to dying.

Courtroom apology

During this closing argument, Boeing attorney Dan Webb stressed the company's remorse, turning to Bhattacharya to express Boeing's apology in court.

Webb also told the jury that they must decide on one issue: fair and reasonable amount of damages. He added that the jury must not base their decision on sympathy, echoing trial instructions from Judge Jorge Alonso.

"This trial for example does not involve damages punishing Boeing, this trial only has to do with compensation," Webb said.

"There is nothing in this case to punish Boeing and yet when I sat here and heard Mr. Specter asking for $80 to $230 million, that's not fair and reasonable compensation. He is asking to punish Boeing."

Garg had been a consultant for the United Nations Development Program, and had been traveling to Nairobi for a UN Environment Assembly.

She married three months earlier and had planned to travel with her husband, who canceled his flight at the last minute because of a meeting.

In a closing statement, plaintiffs attorney Shanin Specter emphasized the loss of Garg's potential when she died. He touched on Bhattacharya's comments on the witness stand, when he described his late wife as a "brilliant" young professional studying renewable energy.

"Part of Soumya's grief is knowing that he doesn't get to see her do that," Specter said. "He doesn't get to share that with her."