An individual from Ontario has come to an agreement with Boeing after nearly seven years following the tragic loss of six family members in an airplane crash. The settlement was reached shortly after the commencement of a wrongful death trial in Chicago concerning the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in 2019.
The fatal incident occurred when the flight, en route to Kenya, crashed shortly after departing from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, claiming the lives of all 157 individuals on board, which included 18 Canadians. Among the victims were Manant Vaidya’s father, Pannagesh Vaidya, 73, his mother, Hansini Vaidya, 67, his sister Kosha Vaidya, 37, his brother-in-law Prerit Dixit, 45, and his two nieces Ashka Dixit, 14, and Anushka Dixit, 13, who were students in the Peel region at the time.
The Vaidya family, residing in Canada, was traveling to show the teenage girls their mother’s birthplace and visit their grandparents’ friends. Boeing acknowledged full responsibility for the tragic loss and has now been held accountable through the settlement with Manant Vaidya. The terms of the settlement remain undisclosed.
Boeing expressed deep regret for the loss of lives on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and accepted legal responsibility for the incident. The company committed to compensate families fully and fairly. While the majority of claims have been settled, families retain the right to pursue claims through damages trials if they choose to do so. Vaidya and his family did not provide comments on the settlement.
In a separate agreement, Paul Njoroge, another Canadian who lost his wife and three children in the same crash, also reached a settlement with Boeing last year. Boeing admitted responsibility for the Ethiopia crash in a 2021 deal with the victims’ families, allowing them to pursue individual claims in U.S. courts. Investigations revealed that the crash resulted from a faulty sensor system that pushed the plane’s nose down, leading to pilot inability to regain control. Following the incident, Boeing grounded Max jets globally until implementing system redesigns.
Additionally, Boeing recently reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid criminal prosecution related to the crashes.