Chicago (United States) (AFP) – US aviation giant Boeing was “negligent” in the 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 aircraft, the lawyer for the family of one of the victims told a Chicago federal civil court on Wednesday. The accident, which claimed a total of 157 lives, led to 155 civil lawsuits filed by relatives of the victims.
“Boeing was negligent, Boeing’s aircraft was unsafe, Boeing caused this crash and these deaths,” said Shanin Specter, lawyer for the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American woman killed in the accident. “This crash was preventable, this crash was senseless.” Nearly all of the civil lawsuits around the crash have been settled out of court.
In Stumo’s case, however, her family was unable to reach an agreement with Boeing ahead of the trial, which began on Monday with two days of jury selection. The victim’s parents, Nadia Milleron and Michael Stumo, sat in the front row of the gallery, along with Samya’s two brothers, Adnaan and Tor. “It feels like since she’s been gone we don’t have permission to be happy,” Michael Stumo testified. “Sometimes you catch yourself being happy and you correct yourself, like you shouldn’t be.”
In a composed tone, as his wife sobbed in the audience, he spoke for hours about “Sammy,” his “sophisticated and charismatic” daughter. “It felt like my organs were crushing inside my body,” Stumo said, recalling his reaction when he learned of the accident in the middle of the night. “We had lost Nels before,” he said, referring to a son who died of cancer as an infant. “How could we lose two?”
Since Samya’s death, Stumo said his wife no longer listens to music, the family no longer holds karaoke nights, and his son Tor — once the happiest of the three — had withdrawn into himself. Stumo is scheduled to continue his testimony on Thursday. His wife and two sons are expected to follow.
Earlier in the day, Specter had spoken at length about the life of an “extraordinarily gifted and extraordinarily accomplished” young woman who taught herself to read at age three, graduated from high school at 16, and studied at the University of Massachusetts before earning a full scholarship to the University of Copenhagen. It was while on her first assignment for what was described as her dream job with a public health NGO that she boarded flight ET302 on March 10, 2019, which crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all on board.
The Ethiopian crash followed a Lion Air crash about four and a half months earlier in Indonesia. The two crashes claimed 346 lives in total. Boeing acknowledged that anti-stall software was implicated in both accidents. The aviation giant’s attorney, Dan Webb, expressed the company’s sorrow at the crash and said he agreed that the family should receive “significant financial compensation for the harm they’ve experienced.”
“The only disagreement we have is, we do disagree on the exact amount of compensation,” he said. Webb’s opening remarks were similar to those he made in November 2025 during the first civil trial against Boeing related to the two accidents. The jury had awarded $28.45 million in damages to the widower of one of the victims. A second trial, in January, was halted after an out-of-court settlement was reached after the second day.
The Stumo trial is expected to last until May 15, barring an out-of-court settlement. Stumo’s parents have emerged as vocal critics of Boeing and have advocated for tougher government aviation safety oversight. Her mother is the niece of consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, and is running for Congress as an independent. Michael Stumo works on economic policy for the Office of Management and Budget after previously leading the Coalition for a Prosperous America, an advocacy group representing US manufacturers and producers.
© 2024 AFP
