Family of Irish plane crash victim awarded $29m in damages

The widow of an Irish United Nations employee, who died in 2019 following a Boeing 737 Max crash in Ethiopia, has been awarded $29m (£21.5m) in damages.

A jury in Chicago in the United States awarded the sum to Michael 'Mick' Ryan's family after his widow Naoise Connolly Ryan brought a civil suit against the aircraft manufacturer.

Her lawyers have said the verdict "represents an important measure of accountability and justice".

A Boeing spokesperson said the company is "deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones" and they "respect" the right for families to "pursue their claims".

Michael Ryan, a father of two living in Cork but originally from County Clare, was among the 157 people killed on board the Ethiopian Airlines plane.

He had worked as an engineer with the United Nations World Food Programme.

Lawyer Steven C Marks, who represented Ryan's widow, said: "While no financial award can ever replace a life or undo the profound loss his family has endured, we are grateful that the jury carefully considered the evidence and reached this decision."

Marks said that Connolly Ryan has "pursued justice for Mick with extraordinary strength and determination" and his firm Podhurst Orseck have been "honoured to stand beside her in her unwavering pursuit to hold Boeing accountable".

"Although the verdict marks a significant milestone, the broader effort to hold Boeing responsible for this tragedy, and to help prevent anything like it from happening again, is just as important," he added.

In a statement, a Boeing spokesperson said: "We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

"While we have resolved nearly all of these claims through settlements, families are entitled to pursue their claims through the court process, and we respect their right to do so."

On a United Nations memorial page to Michael Ryan it said he helped the World Food Programme "bring assistance to vulnerable people" in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

The organisation credits him with organising "the building of shelters and infrastructure" in Bangladesh "which saved tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from the threat of landslides and floods".

It also said he built medical centres in Liberia during the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak.

Marks told BBC News NI that Ryan "will be missed by the world at large" as that was "who he served".

"It's tragic to the public, but it pales in comparison to the loss for the family.

"His impact was worldwide."

Flight ET302 took off from Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa at 08:38 local time (05:38 GMT) on 10 March for a two-hour flight to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Six minutes later, at 08:44, it crashed 30 miles southeast of the airport, near the town of Bishoftu.

The impact was so great, both engines were buried at a depth of 10m (32ft), in a crater 28m wide and 40m long.

The preliminary report into the accident, by Ethiopia's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said the plane's take-off appeared normal.

However, a short time later two sensors that measured the angle of the plane's flight began to record different readings.

This triggered an automated safety system which repeatedly pushed the nose of the plane down - something that was also recorded during the fatal Lion Air flight.

The Ethiopian authorities' 2019 report suggested the pilots followed steps to disengage the system, but even after manually trying to steady the plane, the system pushed the nose down until the aircraft crashed.