A Brampton man who lost six members of his family in the 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight will have his case for damages heard in a Chicago courtroom on Monday.
Manant Vaidya lost his parents, his sister, his brother-in-law, and two nieces in the crash of the Boeing 737 MAX8 aircraft that went down shortly after taking off from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, en route to Nairobi, Kenya, on March 10, 2019.
All 157 people aboard the aircraft from 35 different countries were killed.
Vaidya said at the time of the crash, the family was travelling during the spring break with the young girls to see where their mother was born.
Jury selection is scheduled for Monday morning, and the case is expected to last one week.
Attorneys for Vaidya say they will be seeking monetary damages to “hold the giant corporation accountable,” but would not confirm an exact dollar figure.
Boeing has accepted responsibility for the crash in a deal that allows the victims’ families to pursue individual claims in U.S. courts, rather than their home countries. The airline manufacturer avoided U.S. federal charges after agreeing to pay or invest an additional $1.1 billion in fines and compensation for the crash victims’ families.
Families of the passengers have filed more than 100 lawsuits against Boeing.
Boeing reached a settlement with another Canadian man last July, Paul Njoroge, whose wife and three children were killed in the crash. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
The family of a United Nations consultant who was killed in the crash were awarded more than $28 million by a Chicago jury last November.
