A jury in Chicago awarded $49.5 million in damages Wednesday to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American killed in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash.
The crash of Flight ET 302 claimed 157 lives. It was the second fatal accident involving Boeing's 737 MAX 8 in less than five months, following the Lion Air crash in Indonesia.
After deliberating just two hours, the jury determined Boeing was liable. The Stumo family had been unable to reach a settlement with Boeing, which has settled nearly all other civil lawsuits out of court.
Stumo was traveling to Kenya for her first assignment with ThinkWell, a public health NGO. The planes were later grounded for nearly two years for system upgrades. Boeing previously paid over $1.1 billion in fines and $445 million in compensation to avoid criminal prosecution for misleading regulators.