Boeing to pay $87 million to Kenyan families

The compensation covers the relatives of 32 victims of the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash

The families of 32 Kenyans killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash will receive a combined $87.3 million in compensation from Boeing, Kenyan media reported on Monday.

This comes more than seven years after a Boeing 737 MAX crashed shortly after leaving Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board, including 32 Kenyans, on March 10, 2019. Less than five months earlier, Lion Air Flight 610, the same Boeing aircraft model, crashed in Indonesia, killing all 189 people aboard.

The Kenyan families will receive $87,343,352.60 in total, The Star reported, citing Chicago-based Ribbeck Law Chartered. The firm represents 93 families affected by the two 737 MAX disasters.

“We have now concluded the legal work on behalf of our clients in the United States, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia,” Manuel von Ribbeck of Ribbeck Law Chartered said. “Boeing will begin compensating our clients immediately pursuant to the non-prosecution agreement entered into with the US Department of Justice.”

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The $87.3 million payment to the Kenyan families is part of a $444.5 million fund established under Boeing’s 2025 non-prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice.

The Justice Department charged Boeing in 2021 with defrauding US aviation regulators after two of the company’s technical pilots concealed information from the Federal Aviation Administration about the 737 MAX flight control system. Boeing entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the department that year and agreed to establish a $500 million fund for the families of the 346 people killed in the two crashes.

The US officials determined in 2024 that Boeing breached the terms of that agreement. The department later reached a new non-prosecution agreement with the company in 2025, which included an additional $444.5 million for the victims’ families.

The department said the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) activated during both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights and may have played a role in the crashes. The 737 MAX was grounded in the US three days after the Ethiopian Airlines disaster and later underwent changes before being allowed to return to service.