According to American legal documents and data from the law firm representing the families, thirty-two Kenyan families whose relatives died in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash will receive a total sum of $87.3 million from the Boeing compensation fund established after the Boeing 737 MAX crash.
The law firm Ribbeck Law Chartered reported that Boeing will begin distributing final payments after the conclusion of legal proceedings in the United States. These 32 Kenyan families will collectively receive $87,343,352.60, which amounts to approximately $2.73 million per family on average.
Flight 302 traveled from Addis Ababa to Nairobi and crashed on March 10, 2019, approximately six minutes after takeoff. All 157 people on board perished in this incident.
This crash occurred less than five months after Lion Air Flight 610, also equipped with a Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed in the Java Sea off Indonesia on October 29, 2018, resulting in the death of all 189 passengers.
Investigations into both incidents identified Boeing's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) as a key factor in the accidents. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Justice determined that Boeing misled regulators regarding certain aspects of this system.
Boeing Releases Final $944 Million
As part of the 2021 Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Boeing established a $500 million fund to compensate heirs, relatives, and legal beneficiaries of the 346 victims in the two crashes. In 2025, Boeing agreed to contribute an additional $444.5 million to this fund under a new Non-Prosecution Agreement. This was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General.
The two funds related to criminal cases total $944.5 million. These funds are separate from private civil claims and settlements filed by the victims' families against Boeing, for which additional compensation has been obtained through civil litigation.
According to Ribbeck Law, their work covered families from over 35 countries and legal proceedings in various jurisdictions. The law firm specified that the payments to the Kenyan families are part of the distribution of funds from the criminal case compensation fund. The exact amount each family receives may vary depending on applicable distribution rules and the beneficiaries' right to receive payments.
For the families of the 346 victims, these latest payments mark another stage in the multi-year legal process following the two aviation disasters.