Six Alaska Airlines passengers are suing Boeing after a door plug blew off an aircraft while it was flying. The mishap occurred shortly after the plane took off from Oregon on Friday.
A class-action lawsuit was filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle on Thursday against Boeing. Representing the passengers, attorney Daniel Laurence from the Stritmatter Firm said compensation is owed for the damaging effects the experience had on the passengers.
“Unfortunately, although everyone is glad that the blow-out occurred while the crew could still manage to land the aircraft safely, this nightmare experience has caused economic, physical and ongoing emotional consequences that have understandably deeply affected our clients, and is one more disturbing black mark on the troubled 737-MAX series aircraft,” Laurence said.
In the filing, Laurence wrote that his clients “have suffered and may continue to suffer harm and damages as a result of” Boeing and “its agents’ misconduct.”
The flight took off at 4:52 p.m. PT, reaching 16,000 feet about six minutes into the flight before the door plug came off of the Boeing 737 Max 9, leaving a gaping hole in the left side of the aircraft and causing oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling. The plane landed safely at Portland International Airport at around 5:30 p.m.
Federal officials are in the process of investigating what caused the plane’s fuselage to detach.
“After the incident, the FAA was notified of additional discrepancies on other Boeing 737-9 airplanes,” a Federal Aviation Administration official said in a letter notifying Boeing of an investigation on Wednesday.
Since the incident, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines have reported inspectors discovered loose bolts in several of their Boeing 737 Max 9s, and the FAA temporarily grounded the planes on Saturday.
Acknowledging the incident for the first time on Tuesday, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said, “We’re going to approach this, No. 1, acknowledging our mistake.”
“We’re going to approach it with 100% and complete transparency every step of the way,” Calhoun said during a town hall staff meeting in Renton, Washington.
Laurence said while the National Transportation Safety Board has yet to discover what caused the plane to decompress, the suit was filed after Calhoun’s admission.
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“But given Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun’s forthright admission that this terrifying event was caused by Boeing’s ‘mistake’ (a soft take on its apparent negligence), our passenger clients elected to file suit as soon as possible in order to seek fair compensation for their injuries and those of all other passengers, spouses, and registered domestic partners, as soon as reasonably possible,” Laurence said.
Boeing told the Washington Examiner it had “nothing to add,” and Alaska Airlines did not respond to a comment request by the time of publication.
