Families of at least six Kenyans killed on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 sued Boeing in the United States in August 2019, accusing it of conspiring with the Federal Aviation Administration to sell an unairworthy plane.
Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 ET-AVJ, the aircraft later lost as Flight 302, takes off from Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel on February 8, 2019. (LLBG Spotter / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0) [file photo]
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed near Bishoftu shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019, killing all 157 people on board, including 32 Kenyans.
Lawyers for the families, including Kenya-based Irungu Kang'ata and Gachie Mwanza, alleged that the FAA had handed Boeing the authority to certify its own planes as airworthy although the manufacturer lacked the capacity to do so, AllAfrica and the Nyakundi Report said. “This is a case of the fox guarding the hen house,” lawyer Alisa Brodkowitz said.
The lawyers sought substantial punitive damages. A suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and the American lawyers served a claim notice on the FAA, which could not be sued until six months had passed, Citizen Digital reported.
Kang'ata and Senator Samson Cherargei said they would hold talks with Kenya's foreign affairs and interior ministries and the attorney general's office to support the families. Wanjiku Wairia, a relative of one victim, faulted the Kenyan government for failing to keep its promise to hire counselors for bereaved families.
Other Kenyan families joined a separate compensation case in federal court in Chicago later in August through Ribbeck Law Chartered and the Global Aviation Law Group, the Nyakundi Report said. Boeing had offered about $100 million in support to families and communities affected by the two 737 MAX crashes.
Sources: AllAfrica, Nyakundi Report (Aug. 7, 2019), Citizen Digital, Nyakundi Report (Aug. 14, 2019)