THE MOTHER of Micheál Ryan, the Irish father-of-two who died when an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed upon take-off on March 10, 2019, believes Boeing should face criminal charges over the incident.
Ryan, an engineer with the United Nations’ World Food Programme, was among the 157 people on board the Boeing 737 Max Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 which took off from Addis Adaba for Nairobi in Kenya.
The plane went down minutes after take-off, with Boeing 737 Max planes grounded worldwide in the wake of the disaster, which came six months after a separate crash involving the same make of aircraft in which 189 people died.
It took seven months for Michael’s mother, Christine Ryan, and his family to receive his repatriated remains following the disaster.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Ms Ryan called for Boeing to be held criminally accountable for the two incidents, which she attributed to “corporate greed”.
“We know that the US Federal Aviation Administration had told Boeing that within the lifetime of those planes, there would be 14 crashes,” she said.
“That came out in a hearing in America. They had been warned but still, they didn’t stop.
“I don’t think it will be any consolation but I’d like to see justice done,” Ms Ryan added.
She also rebuffed the idea that any financial settlement would bring an end to the matter.
“It’s not a question of money. They are a multi-million-dollar organization,” she said.
“Money doesn’t matter to them. We would prefer if people were found culpable. They need to be held accountable for killing all of those people.”
“Nothing is going to bring them back but if people were held accountable for what is really a criminal offense rather than a civil offense, that might give us some bit of peace.”
