$50 million payout to crash victims’ families
WASHINGTON - Boeing Co said on Wednesday it would dedicate half of a $100 million fund it created after two crashes of its 737 MAX planes to provide payments to families of those killed, with veteran US compensation expert Ken Feinberg hired by the world’s largest plane maker to oversee the distribution.
The announcement of Mr Feinberg’s hiring came minutes before a US House of Representatives hearing featuring dramatic testimony by Paul Njoroge, a father who lost three children, his wife and mother-in-law in a 737 MAX Ethiopian Air crash in March.
Mr Feinberg told Reuters his team would “start immediately drafting a claims protocol for those eligible”, with the first meeting with officials from Chicago-based Boeing later this week in Washington. Mr Feinberg has administered many compensation funds including for victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, General Motors ignition switch crashes and numerous school shootings.
The 737 MAX, Boeing’s best-selling jet, was grounded globally in March following the Ethiopian Airlines crash after a similar Lion Air disaster in Indonesia in October. The two crashes killed 346 people.