Boeing is poised to face a jury trial from Monday over the fatal 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX plane, the first civil case related to the disaster to reach court.

The Chicago trial, expected to last two weeks, was to feature two plaintiffs who lost family members in the calamity.

But one of the complaints was resolved in an out-of-court settlement late on Sunday, a judicial source said, in line with most earlier litigants.

Barring another last-minute settlement, the trial will begin on Monday with the selection of an eight-person jury.

"We have had some ongoing discussion that may continue throughout the day and the ensuing days," Robert Clifford, who represents relatives of several crash victims, told the US District court on Wednesday at a pre-trial hearing.

A deal could also be struck even while the trial is underway.

The Boeing plane crashed on March 10, 2019, just six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on its way to Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.

Relatives of 155 of the victims had sued Boeing between April 2019 and March 2021 for wrongful death, negligence and other charges.

As of late last month, there were 18 complaints still open against Boeing, a source familiar with the case told AFP.

Sunday's deal meant that a further three cases had been settled since then, multiple judicial sources told AFP.

This week's Chicago litigation will now examine only the case of Canadian Darcy Belanger.

Belanger, 46, who lived in Colorado, was a founding member of environmental NGO, the Parvati Foundation, and also worked in construction. He had been visiting Nairobi for a UN conference.(AFP)