NEW YORK, Nov 4 — Relatives of victims in the fatal crash of a Boeing 737 MAX plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines headed to court yesterday for the first civil trial relating to the 2019 calamity.

The US aviation giant had come close to facing a jury on previous occasions in US District Judge Jorge Alonso’s Chicago courtroom, where the cases have been consolidated.

On four prior occasions, attorneys reached last-minute settlements that averted a trial.

But not this time.

The trial got underway yesterday morning, with selection of an eight-person jury and opening statements expected by today afternoon.

The trial stems from the March 10, 2019, flight that went down six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.

Family members of 155 victims filed lawsuits between April 2019 and March 2021, alleging wrongful death and negligence, among other claims.

While many cases have settled, 11 cases remain and are still proceeding.

Alonso has been splitting the cases into groups with five or six plaintiffs at a time. In prior rounds, the judge has cancelled the proceeding after all the cases in the group settled.