Seven years after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 went down outside Addis Ababa, a federal jury in Chicago is still assigning a dollar value to what Boeing’s failures cost one family. On May 13, that number came in at $49.5 million.
The verdict is not large enough to threaten Boeing’s balance sheet. But the case it resolves carries weight that goes well beyond the sum awarded.
What jury decided on Boeing Max lawsuit and how damages were structured
A federal jury in Chicago awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who worked for health care nonprofit ThinkWell and was killed aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019, according to NPR.
The jury awarded the family $21 million for Stumo’s experience on the fatal flight, $16.5 million for the family’s loss of her companionship, and $12 million for grief, NPR confirmed.
Boeing had already admitted responsibility for the crash, meaning the trial was not about whether the company was at fault, but solely about how much it should pay in compensatory damages. Claims for punitive damages against Boeing executives and the plane’s component manufacturers were dismissed during the proceedings. Stumo’s legal team has signaled it will pursue those punitive claims on appeal.
More Airlines:
- Spirit Airlines desperately seeks help from an unexpected source
- JetBlue makes a boarding change some may like
- Another airline shuts down for summer, cancels all flights
Boeing issued a statement following the verdict. “We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302,” the company said.
“While we have resolved nearly all of these claims through settlements, families are entitled to pursue their claims through the court process, and we respect their right to do so,” according to NPR.
What this second Boeing jury verdict signals about remaining cases
The Stumo verdict is not the first time a jury has put a number on Boeing’s liability from the Ethiopian Airlines crash. In November 2025, a separate Chicago jury awarded more than $28 million to the family of Shikha Garg, a United Nations environmental worker who was also killed aboard Flight 302.
The two verdicts together represent a small fraction of the total liability Boeing has faced from the 737 Max crashes. The two disasters, Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019, killed 346 people in total. Boeing faced dozens of lawsuits and has resolved nearly all of them through private settlements. The Stumo case is described as one of the last remaining civil trials tied to the crashes.
The criminal dimension of the 737 Max case reached its own conclusion earlier this year. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit declined on March 31, 2026, to revive a criminal prosecution against Boeing, upholding the terms of a 2025 nonprosecution agreement with the Department of Justice that imposed conditions on the company while closing off the path to a criminal conviction.
Ryder/Getty Images
What the verdict means for Boeing’s recovery and investor sentiment
For Boeing, the direct financial impact of a $49.5 million award is manageable. The company generated tens of billions in revenue last year and has absorbed far larger costs related to the 737 Max, including the costs of the global grounding, the redesign of the MCAS flight-control system, settlements with airlines, and billions in regulatory penalties. A single jury award does not reshape Boeing’s financial position.
But verdicts like this one do keep the 737 Max crisis visible and active at a moment when Boeing is trying to project forward momentum. The company has been working to recover production rates, restore airline confidence, and demonstrate to regulators that its safety culture has genuinely changed. Each new legal development reattaches the company’s present to its past and makes that forward narrative harder to sustain in the short term.
The punitive damages appeal adds another layer of uncertainty. If Stumo’s legal team succeeds in reviving those claims, a subsequent trial could produce a significantly larger award and draw considerably more attention than the compensatory damages verdict has.
That remains an open legal question, not a settled outcome, but it is a variable investors and analysts should track alongside Boeing’s operational recovery.
Key figures from the Boeing 737 Max verdict and legal timeline:
- Verdict date: May 13, 2026; federal district court, Chicago, according to NPR
- Total award: $49.5 million; breakdown: $21 million for experience on flight, $16.5 million for loss of companionship, $12 million for grief, NPR confirmed
- Prior verdict: November 2025, $28 million to family of Shikha Garg, also killed in Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, NPR noted
- Total crash deaths: 346 across two 737 Max crashes (Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019), according to Hoodline
- Criminal case: U.S. Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit declined to revive prosecution on March 31, 2026; DOJ nonprosecution agreement from 2025 remains in place, according to Hoodline
- Punitive damages: Claims dismissed during trial; Stumo family lawyers will pursue on appeal, Hoodline confirmed
What comes next for Boeing and the families still seeking accountability
The Stumo verdict closes one chapter of the civil litigation while leaving another open. The punitive damages appeal means Boeing has not heard the last of this case in court. For the families of the 346 people who died in the two crashes, the civil justice process has moved at a pace that reflects the complexity of major aviation disaster litigation, and not all of them may feel the verdicts and settlements have adequately addressed the scale of what happened.
For investors, the relevant question is not whether a single $49.5 million verdict changes Boeing’s financial outlook. It does not. The question is what the steady continuation of legal proceedings says about the completeness of Boeing’s reckoning with the 737 Max disaster.
Markets that are pricing in a Boeing recovery are implicitly betting that the legal and reputational overhang eventually fades. Verdicts like this one are a reminder that the process is moving slowly and that the overhang has not yet fully lifted.
Related: Should Boeing be in the Dow? A look at the struggling stock
