Family awarded $28 million in U.N. consultant's death on Boeing plane

A federal court jury in Chicago has awarded the family of a United Nations consultant more than $28 million due to her death in the crash of a Boeing 737 Max in Ethiopia over six years ago. This comes after a weeklong trial, during which Boeing was held accountable for its role in the March 2019 incident that claimed the lives of 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. The family's attorneys expressed satisfaction with the verdict, which has brought a total of $35.8 million to Shikha Garg's relatives, including an additional $3.45 million for her husband agreed upon outside of court. Boeing has already settled many wrongful death lawsuits related to the crash and the previous disaster in Indonesia. The company has accepted responsibility for the crashes and has expressed apologies to the victims' families. The jury mainly focused on awarding damages for the family's losses, including emotional distress and pain suffered by Garg before the tragic event. The crash led to a global grounding of all Boeing Max jets, with flights resuming recently. Additionally, Boeing has agreed to pay $1.1 billion as part of a settlement, following allegations of deceit and wrongdoing related to the flight-control system on the 737 Max. A congressional report highlighted concerns raised by Boeing engineers and pilots regarding the system linked to the crashes and criticized the FAA's oversight of airplane safety certification.