- A Chicago jury awarded twenty-nine million dollars to the family of Michael Ryan after a lengthy trial.
- The victim was a United Nations humanitarian engineer who died in the twenty-nineteen Ethiopian Airlines crash.
- The verdict represents the third major civil award against Boeing in Chicago courts regarding the Seven Thirty-Seven MAX.
A Chicago jury awarded $29 million on Wednesday to the family of Michael “Mick” Ryan, the World Food Programme’s Deputy Chief Engineer who died aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302.
The flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019. All 157 people aboard died, including Ryan, an Irish-born United Nations employee who was 39.
Naoise Connolly Ryan, his widow, sued Boeing in the civil case. The verdict came in Chicago on August 12, 2026.
Ryan’s family chose a jury trial instead of accepting money directly from the company. Their lawyer, Steven Marks, said they were “committed to seeking accountability and justice from a jury and not accepting money from Boeing directly.”
Naoise Ryan described the result in personal terms.
“We got justice, but we are still walking out of the courtroom without Mick.”
Ryan’s two children, Saorlaith and Macdara, have joined their mother in campaigning for global air safety. She has described grief as a “never-ending time loop” and sought consequences beyond a private settlement.
The award follows a separate verdict in May 2026. A Chicago jury awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who also died on Flight ET302.
Ryan’s humanitarian career became part of the family’s account of his loss
Ryan worked for the United Nations World Food Programme before the crash. His assignments took him to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Ethiopia.
He also worked during Liberia’s Ebola crisis. His humanitarian projects included medical centers and shelters for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
The work crossed several regions.
Ryan’s death came during a flight that had departed Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 went down soon after takeoff, killing everyone aboard and becoming one of two fatal crashes involving the 737 MAX.
Boeing has acknowledged that the aircraft’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS, was a primary factor in both the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the 2018 Lion Air crash in Indonesia.
The two crashes killed 346 people combined. Authorities grounded the aircraft fleet after the accidents.
Three Chicago verdicts now show the range of awards in the crash litigation
The Ryan judgment follows another award in November 2025 to the widower of a different victim. That jury awarded $28.45 million.
The three publicly identified awards are:
| Case | Timing | Award | Victim or family |
|---|---|---|---|
| Another victim’s family | November 2025 | $28.45 million | Widower of a victim |
| Samya Stumo’s family | May 2026 | $49.5 million | 24-year-old American |
| Michael Ryan’s family | August 12, 2026 | 29 million dollars | 39-year-old WFP Deputy Chief Engineer |
The Stumo case helped establish a damages benchmark in litigation arising from the MAX crashes. The Ryan verdict adds another jury award from the same Chicago court system.
Two lawsuits tied to the Ethiopian Airlines crash remain active in Chicago after the Ryan decision, according to the additional research describing the status of the cases.
Naoise Ryan had declined Boeing’s previous settlement offers. She pursued a public trial and sought to have the family’s claims considered by jurors rather than resolved through a confidential settlement.
Boeing expressed sympathy while the civil claims continued
A Boeing spokesperson said the company was sorry for the deaths and respected the families’ decision to pursue their claims in court.
“We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones. and we respect their right to [pursue claims through the court process].”
The statement addressed the families’ use of the court process, not the amount awarded to Ryan’s family. Marks said the family had wanted a jury to consider accountability and justice.
Boeing’s acknowledgment concerning MCAS forms part of the broader history surrounding the two crashes. The Ryan case was a civil claim brought by his widow over his death on Flight ET302.
The company’s aircraft faced grounding after the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes. Together, the disasters killed 346 people.
A separate criminal-accountability effort remains in court
The civil verdict did not resolve a separate criminal dispute involving Boeing. In November 2025, a federal judge in Texas granted a Justice Department request to dismiss criminal charges after the company completed a deferred prosecution agreement.
Families of crash victims are pursuing a mandamus petition. They want the dismissal of the criminal conspiracy charge reversed.
That proceeding is distinct from the Chicago civil lawsuits. The Ryan family’s damages case concerned compensation arising from his death, while the petition seeks action in the criminal matter.
Judge Reed O’Connor, who was involved in the related Texas criminal proceeding rather than the Ryan civil trial, previously described Boeing’s wrongdoing as “the deadliest corporate crime in US history.”
The remaining Chicago cases will proceed separately from the families’ petition. The Ryan verdict adds a civil judgment while that broader criminal-accountability effort continues.
