Thirty-two Kenyan families who lost relatives in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 are set to receive a combined $87.3 million from a Boeing 737 MAX crash-victim compensation fund, according to US legal records and the law firm representing the families.

Ribbeck Law Chartered said Boeing would begin releasing the final payments following the completion of legal proceedings in the United States.

The law firm said the 32 Kenyan families would collectively receive $87,343,352.60, an average of about $2.73 million per family.

Flight 302 was travelling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi when it crashed on March 10, 2019, about six minutes after takeoff. All 157 people on board died.

The crash came less than five months after Lion Air Flight 610, another Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed into the Java Sea off Indonesia on October 29, 2018, killing all 189 people aboard.

Investigations into both crashes identified Boeing's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), an automated flight-control system, as a key factor in the accidents. The US Justice Department also found that Boeing had misled regulators about aspects of the system.

Boeing releases final $944 million

Under a 2021 Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the US Department of Justice, Boeing established a $500 million fund to compensate the heirs, relatives and legal beneficiaries of the 346 people killed in the two crashes. In 2025, Boeing agreed to contribute an additional $444.5 million to the fund under a new Non-Prosecution Agreement. The US Department of Transportation's Inspector General confirmed the additional payment.

Together, the two criminal-case victim funds total $944.5 million.

The funds are separate from private civil claims and settlements brought by victims' families against Boeing. Those civil proceedings have resulted in additional compensation.

According to Ribbeck Law, its work involved families in more than 35 countries and proceedings across multiple jurisdictions.

The law firm said the Kenyan families' payments form part of the distribution of the criminal-case compensation funds.

The exact amount received by each family may vary depending on the applicable distribution rules and the beneficiaries eligible to receive the payments.

For the families of the 346 victims, the latest payments represent another step in a years-long legal process following the two crashes.

(With input from wires)