Ontario man reaches settlement with Boeing over family's death in 2019 Ethiopia plane crash

An Ontario man has reached a settlement agreement with Boeing almost seven years after six of his family members died in a plane crash. 

It comes just days after a U.S. wrongful death trial began for the family in Chicago over the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 plane in 2019.

The flight heading to Kenya crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, resulting in the deaths of all 157 people, including 18 Canadians, on board. 

In that incident, Manant Vaidya lost his father, Pannagesh Vaidya, 73, his mother, Hansini Vaidya, 67, his sister Kosha Vaidya, 37, his brother-in-law Prerit Dixit, 45, and his two nieces Ashka Dixit, 14, and Anushka Dixit, 13. The teenage girls were both students at schools in Peel region at the time. 

The family, who lived in Canada, had been travelling to show the teenage girls where their mother was born and to visit their grandparents' friends, said a news release by Vaidya's lawyers at Clifford Law Offices. 

"Boeing accepted full responsibility for the senseless and preventable loss of these innocent lives, and this corporate giant has now been held accountable to this family, especially to this good man who lost his dear mom, dad and sister," said Robert Clifford, senior partner at Clifford Law. 

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed publicly.

CBC News has reached out to Vaidya and Boeing for comment. 

Vaidya told CBC News in a previous story that he was in disbelief over the loss of his loved ones.

In 2019, he travelled to Ethiopia to collect the remains of his loved ones with the intention of carrying out final rituals in India with his extended family.

Paul Njoroge, another Canadian man whose wife and three children died in the deadly incident, also reached a settlement with Boeing in July last year.

In 2021, Chicago-based Boeing accepted responsibility for the Ethiopia crash in a deal with the victims' families that allowed them to pursue individual claims in U.S. courts instead of their home countries.

Investigators determined the crash was caused by a system that relied on a sensor that provided faulty readings and pushed the plane's nose down, leaving pilots unable to regain control. After the Ethiopia crash, Max jets were grounded worldwide until the company redesigned the system.

This year, Boeing reached a deal with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid criminal prosecution in both crashes.