Boeing Faces First 737 Max Crash Trial as Settlements Mount

According to Manufacturing.net, the first civil trial over Boeing’s 737 Max Ethiopia crash began Wednesday before a federal jury in Chicago, where Boeing must determine compensation for the family of Shikha Garg, a 28-year-old United Nations consultant among the 157 victims killed in March 2019. The trial started after Boeing reached an 11th-hour settlement with the family of another victim, Mercy Ndivo, and resolved two additional pending cases, leaving fewer than a dozen lawsuits unresolved from the disaster. Boeing has already accepted responsibility for both the Ethiopia crash and a similar Indonesia disaster five months earlier that killed 189 people. The jury’s sole task is determining damages for Garg’s family, including burial expenses, lost income, and grief compensation, with the trial expected to last about 10 days.

Boeing’s Legal Strategy Emerges

Here’s the thing about this trial – Boeing isn’t fighting liability anymore. They’ve already admitted responsibility for both crashes. So what’s left to argue about? Money, obviously, but there’s a more subtle battle happening. Boeing’s lawyer Dan Webb, a former U.S. attorney, is focusing heavily on whether passengers experienced physical pain before impact. He’s bringing in an aerospace medicine expert to testify about G-force data, essentially arguing that death was instantaneous and painless.

That’s a pretty calculated move when you think about it. By conceding responsibility but fighting the “pain and suffering” angle, Boeing might be trying to limit damages while appearing cooperative. And they’re settling cases right up to the courtroom door – the Ndivo family settlement happened literally moments before jurors arrived. That pattern suggests Boeing knows which cases might be particularly damaging if they go to trial.

The Bigger Picture for Boeing

This civil trial is really just the tip of the iceberg for Boeing’s legal nightmare. Remember, the company is also facing criminal charges for conspiracy to commit fraud related to both crashes. Prosecutors say Boeing deceived regulators about that flight-control system that repeatedly pushed the planes’ noses down based on faulty sensor readings.

Now here’s where it gets interesting – the Justice Department wants to let Boeing avoid prosecution entirely if they pay up. We’re talking about a $1.1 billion package covering fines, victim compensation, and safety improvements. But will that be enough? After two crashes that killed 346 people total, many are questioning whether financial penalties alone can fix what’s broken at Boeing.

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What Comes Next

So where does this leave Boeing? With most cases settled confidentially, we may never know the full financial impact. But the remaining trials could set important precedents for compensation amounts. The Garg case is particularly poignant – she was a newlywed, shown in court photos smiling in her wedding sari just months before the crash.

Her lawyer called the death “senseless” and “preventable,” and honestly, he’s not wrong. Both crashes involved the same flawed software system. Boeing knew about the issues after the first crash but hadn’t grounded the fleet before the Ethiopia disaster. That’s going to weigh heavily on jurors, even if they’re only deciding dollar amounts.

Basically, Boeing’s legal strategy appears to be: settle what you can, limit damages where you can’t, and hope the criminal case gets dismissed. But the real question is whether any amount of money can restore public trust in a company that’s had such catastrophic failures in its core manufacturing processes.