A lawsuit brought against Boeing by a Canadian citizen who lost his family in the crash of a 737 Max jet proceeded to jury selection on Monday.
The case is being heard in federal court in Chicago.
Manant Vaidya of Toronto lost his parents, Pannagesh and Hansini Vaidya, and his sister, Kosha Vaidya, in the March 10, 2019, crash of a 737 Max 8. The aircraft was en route from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia and was heading to Kenya.
The aircraft crashed on takeoff, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew members on board.
According to court documents, the Vaidya family lived in Canada at the time of the crash and was traveling during a school vacation. Kosha’s husband, Preritkumar Dixit, and their two children, Ashka and Anushka Dixit, were also among those killed.
Robert Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices in Chicago, is lead counsel for the plaintiffs.
“This family has waited nearly seven years to see justice, and that is our goal in this trial,” Clifford said in a statement. “Boeing accepted full responsibility for the senseless and preventable loss of these lives. It is now up to a jury to determine just how devastating these losses are through the only way the civil justice system is able—monetary damages—to hold the giant corporation accountable.”
This is the latest in the victim lawsuits brought against Boeing over the 737 Max crashes.
In November a jury awarded $28 million to the family of Shikha Garg, an Indian woman killed in the crash. As part of a deal worked out before the verdict was officially handed down, Boeing agreed to pay Garg’s family $35.8 million, the full jury award plus interest, according to a report from Reuters.
The Ethiopian crash was the second Boeing 737 Max 8 crash within a year. In October 2018, a Lion Air 737 Max 8 crashed during takeoff from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (WIII) in Indonesia, killing all 181 passengers and eight crew members.
After the Ethiopian crash, the entire 737 Max fleet was grounded for 20 months. During the accident investigation, problems were found with Boeing’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) flight stabilizing software. However, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the MCAS was faulty and resulted in the aircraft entering a stall that the pilots could not recover from at low altitude.
