Families of the 32 Kenyans who were among the 157 passengers, those lost life in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines B737MAX plane crash, have started receiving compensation from Boeing, amounting to billions of shillings.
The families of the victims brought civil suits against Boeing in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, which were all consolidated as In Re Ethiopian Airlines ET 302 Crash.
Boeing has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and has agreed not to contest the charges and admits that it engaged in criminal conduct intended to deceive and mislead the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during the 737 MAX certification process.
Under the terms of the agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, Boeing will pay a total criminal monetary amount of over $2.5 billion, composed of a criminal monetary penalty of $243.6 million, compensation payments to Boeing’s 737 MAX airline customers of $1.77 billion, and the establishment of a $500 million crash-victim beneficiaries fund to compensate the heirs, relatives, and legal beneficiaries of the 346 passengers who died in the Boeing 737 MAX crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
Reported by the Nation, Lawyers representing the families are also benefitting from these payments. Boeing, the American aircraft manufacturer, negotiated directly with these legal representatives to determine compensation amounts.
Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata, involved in the case through his Nairobi-based law firm in Upper Hill, said,
“The criteria include the age and financial status of a victim as at the time of the death. The compensation amount also depended on the negotiation skills of the lawyers representing the families.”
Based on a document dated June 25 and reported by the Nation, one family received a net payment of $4.2 million (Kes. 581.8 million) after deductions, including $1,884,035 (Kes. 243 million) allocated for legal fees and related expenses.
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The Boeing B737MAX aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport, killing 149 people on board, including 32 Kenyans, as well as individuals from various other nationalities. The flight was scheduled to fly from Bole Airport in Ethiopia to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.
In January this year, Boeing agreed to compensate the victims’ families after the United States Department of Justice found flaws in the plane’s design, issues that had been concealed from pilots and regulators.
The final report on the Boeing 737 MAX, released in September 2020 by a legislative committee in the United States, highlighted “repeated and serious failures” by Boeing. It identified key factors contributing to the crashes, including design flaws and profit-driven production priorities at the expense of safety.
In numerous instances, Kenyan lawyers partnered with their American counterparts to form an international coalition dedicated to pursuing legal action against Boeing.
“We have successfully resolved most of these cases through negotiations with Boeing,” Dr. Kang’ata affirmed
“However, I cannot disclose further details due to client confidentiality.”
Earlier, Lawyers for the victims released a statement saying that under the agreement, Boeing admitted "that the 737 Max had an unsafe condition, and that it will not attempt to blame anyone else" for the crash.
Dr. Kang’ata clarified that the recent payments represent the second installment. Initially, families received compensation from the aircraft’s insurer, followed by subsequent payments directly from Boeing.
“The lawyers were only compensated after Boeing fulfilled its obligations to the families,” Dr. Kang’ata clarified.
It's to be noted that the Indonesian Lion Air plane of the same model crashed into the sea near Indonesia less than five months earlier, resulting in nearly 190 fatalities.
But two fatal accidents within five months, the Ethiopia Airlines flight out of Addis Ababa and before that the Lion Air jet that came down into the sea off Indonesia - indicated there were serious faults with the aircraft, which was later revealed to be related to the flight control system controlled by a software in MCAS.
The crash of ET 302 led to a grounding of the entire 737 MAX fleet for nearly two years by civil aviation authorities from around the world.
The criteria used to allocate compensation to the victims’ families consider the age and financial status of each victim at the time of death. “Each eligible family will receive nearly $1.45 million, with payments made on a rolling basis as claim forms are submitted and processed,” added Dr. Kang’ata
Boeing had agreed that all compensation claims can be made under US law, which provides for much higher levels of compensation than would apply in many other countries.
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