The family of an Irish United Nations worker who died in the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash has been awarded $29 million (€25 million) in damages by a Chicago jury.
Micheál ‘Mick’ Ryan, a 39-year-old father-of-two from Co Clare, was one of 157 people killed when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019.
The civil case was brought against Boeing by Mr Ryan’s widow, Naoise Connolly Ryan.
The jury award is one of the final civil cases arising from the two deadly Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, which claimed a combined 346 lives.
Most claims brought by families of those killed have been settled out of court, with the terms of those settlements remaining confidential.
However, Ms Connolly Ryan’s attorney Steven Marks previously said she was determined to seek accountability in front of a jury rather than accept a direct settlement from Boeing.
Ethiopian Airlines. JetKat, Shutterstock
Mick Ryan was the sole Irish victim of the Ethiopian Airlines disaster.
Originally from Lahinch, Co Clare, he was living in Cork and worked as an engineer with the United Nations World Food Programme.
He had spent much of his career working in some of the world’s most difficult humanitarian crises.
During the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, he helped oversee the construction of medical centres for people suffering from the virus. His team built 24 hospitals in just six weeks.
He also worked on humanitarian projects in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, he helped organise shelters and infrastructure for Rohingya refugees, including work aimed at protecting communities from landslides and flooding. The UN said his work helped save tens of thousands of people from those threats.
Mick was due to celebrate his 40th birthday just weeks after the crash.
At the time of his death, he was married to Naoise and was the father of two young children, Saorlaith and Macdara.
His daughter was three years old when he died, while his son was just six months old.
Naoise previously spoke about her late husband’s dedication to humanitarian work, saying that he wanted to use engineering to help and protect people around the world.
Mick was later named Humanitarian of the Year by the Irish Red Cross in recognition of his work.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight was travelling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi in Kenya when it crashed near Bishoftu, around 50km southeast of the Ethiopian capital.
The Boeing 737 MAX lost contact with air traffic control just six minutes after take-off.
The crash came just months after another Boeing 737 MAX operated by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia in October 2018, killing all 189 people on board.
Both disasters were linked to the aircraft’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS, an anti-stall system that could repeatedly force the aircraft’s nose down when it received incorrect readings.
Boeing has apologised for the crashes and acknowledged the role of the flight-control software in the disasters.
In May, a Chicago jury also awarded $49.5 million in damages to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who was killed on the same Ethiopian Airlines flight.
The latest case involving Mick Ryan has also been connected to a wider legal battle over Boeing’s handling of the two crashes.
Earlier this year, a US appeals court rejected an attempt by families of victims, including Naoise Connolly Ryan, to challenge a deal between Boeing and the US Department of Justice. The families had argued that the agreement did not provide sufficient accountability for the deaths of 346 people.
Despite the passage of more than seven years since the Ethiopian Airlines disaster, Mick’s family has continued to speak about his life and humanitarian work.
His legacy remains closely tied to the people he helped around the world.
A UN memorial for the crash victims described him as a dedicated humanitarian who believed in giving communities the skills and infrastructure needed to protect themselves.
For his family, however, the loss remains deeply personal.
Speaking on what would have been Mick’s 42nd birthday, Naoise said: “All Mick ever wanted to do was help people.”
She added that he had spent his life trying to protect others and believed engineering could be used to change and save lives.
The €25 million jury award comes after years of legal proceedings for the family, who chose to take their case to trial rather than accept an out-of-court settlement from Boeing.
