Boeing has reached a last-minute settlement with Paul Njoroge, a Canadian man who lost his entire family in the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, just days before the case was set to go to trial.
Njoroge had filed a lawsuit seeking millions in damages for the devastating emotional trauma he has suffered.
On March 10, 2019, his wife Carolyne, their three young children—Ryan, 6; Kellie, 4; and Rubi, 9 months—and his mother-in-law were among the 157 people killed when the Boeing 737 MAX crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi.
The crash was caused by a fatal malfunction in the aircraft’s flight control system.
Njoroge, who had been living in Canada and planned to join his family in Kenya, testified before the U.S. Congress later that year, sharing the unbearable grief and haunting thoughts of his family’s final moments.
“The six minutes will forever be embedded in my mind,” he said.
“I stay up nights thinking of the horror they must have endured. I wasn’t there to help them.”
Since the tragedy, Njoroge has struggled with depression, unemployment, and isolation, unable to return to his family home in Toronto.
He also faced criticism from relatives for not traveling with his family on that fateful day.
While the financial terms of the settlement remain confidential, the case was expected to shine a spotlight on Boeing’s safety practices and the controversial history of the 737 MAX.
The Ethiopian Airlines crash followed a similar accident involving a Lion Air flight in Indonesia in late 2018, bringing the total death toll from the two crashes to 346 and prompting a worldwide grounding of the aircraft.
Njoroge’s legal battle had become one of the most emotionally charged cases linked to the 737 MAX disaster and raised critical questions about corporate accountability and aviation safety.
