Lawyers in the Boeing ET302 crash case met on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, in Federal District Court in Chicago at a two-hour-long hearing that finalized various motions in preparation for the first trial moving forward on Monday, November 3, in the tragedy that killed 157 people in 2019.
Two of five designated cases are set for trial this Monday, November 3, in the 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 MAX8 jet in Ethiopia. U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Alonso will be hearing two cases at a time before a jury of eight people. The trial for these victims’ families is expected to take about 10 days during the federal government shutdown.
Robert A. Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices in Chicago and lead counsel in the litigation, will be the main lawyer trying the first case, in which mediation attempts have failed over the past several months. “We are fully prepared to begin selecting a jury November 3 on behalf of the families from around the world,” Clifford said, who will be the lead counsel in the first case set for trial. Families from 35 countries lost loved ones in the March 10, 2019, crash.
The first two of five cases will begin with jury selection at 8:30 a.m. Monday before Judge Alonso in the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago. The lead cases are a 28-year-old mother from Kenya who left behind a daughter, her parents, and four siblings, and a 36-year-old woman from India who left behind a husband and her parents, who are represented by Kline Spector of Philadelphia.
The next cases to be tried are a successful 38-year-old man from Yemen and Kenya who was killed who was the sole support of his wife and seven children, six who are minors; a 30-year-old successful businessman from the UK and Kenya, one of 10 children himself, who left behind a wife who was pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, and three minor children; and a woman from Ireland who lost her husband who is represented by Steven Marks of Podhurst Orseck of Miami.
“Boeing accepted full responsibility for the senseless and preventable loss of these lives,” Clifford said. “We are determined to achieve justice for every one of them.”
The crash of the Boeing 737 MAX8 jet, Flight ET-302, occurred in March 2019 shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia, heading to Kenya and killing all 157 on board.
Four previous trials before Judge Alonso of Federal District Court in Chicago, former Boeing headquarters, settled shortly before trials were set to begin.
For further information, contact Clifford Law Offices Communications Partner Pamela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 (cell) or pammenaker@cliffordlaw.com