SEATTLE — The passengers onboard Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 have filed a class-action lawsuit against Boeing after a door plug blew off a 737 MAX 9 last week, prompting the plane to depressurize and forcing an emergency landing at Portland International Airport (PDX).
A Washington-based firm filed the lawsuit Thursday in the King County Superior Court in Seattle. Six passengers and a family member are seeking compensations for injuries that were sustained on the flight, including many who said they had difficulty breathing and ear bleeds.
One passenger said the blow-out jolted her head back and forth, "causing a concussion and soft tissue injuries to her neck and back." She also reported losing her hearing, with her left ear bleeding internally. Another person who has a seizure disorder triggered by "stressful situations" said they had a seizure after exiting the plane.
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The lawsuit also alleges that many of the oxygen masks that dropped did not seem to work. It added that in additional to physical injuries, the passengers experienced emotional distress and trauma, with many having feared for their lives.
"Passengers were shocked, terrorized and confused, thrust into a waking nightmare, hoping they would live long enough to walk the earth again," the lawsuit declared.
Some passengers did not want to reboard another plane after the emergency landing, and chose instead to take ground transportation or find other arrangements to their destination, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit accuses Boeing of breaching their legal duties of the 171 passengers onboard, including its role in manufacturing and inspection of the aircraft. It alleges that Boeing had delivered the aircraft without properly securing the door plug or bolts/seals used to secure the door, failing to "design and/or construct those aircraft safely."
Earlier this week, Boeing CEO David Calhoun told employees at the 737 factory in Renton, Washington, that the company was “acknowledging our mistake ... and that this event can never happen again.”
“The NTSB has yet to pinpoint an exact root cause of Flight 1282’s alarming decompression. 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," said The Stritmatter Attorney Daniel Laurence in a statement.
The Stritmatter Firm is the same firm that filed a class-action lawsuit in November against Alaska Airlines and its affiliate, Horizon Air, after off-duty pilot Joseph Emerson allegedly tried to shut down the engines midflight, prompting the plane to be diverted to PDX.
KGW reached out to The Boeing Company for a response, to which the company replied, via email, "Thank you for reaching out. We have nothing to add."
Alaska Airlines announced that it was canceling all flights through Saturday on Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes. The Federal Aviation Administration also grounded all MAX 9s in the U.S. on Saturday.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed earlier in the week that the four bolts that prevent the door plug from moving were no longer attached to the recovered plug or the plane. So far, it's unclear if they were ever there. The blown-out door plug was found by Portland science teacher Bob Sauer in his backyard on Monday. The NTSB recovered it, and it will be sent to the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, D.C. for further examination.