Boeing sued by Alaska Air passengers over 737 Max 9 door blowout

Boeing was sued by passengers on an Alaska Airlines Inc. flight that was forced to make an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, last week after a mid-air blowout of a so-called door plug on the 737 Max 9 jet. The suit, filed Thursday in Washington state court by seven passengers, seeks class-action status and unspecified damages from Boeing, which manufactured the plane. The 171 passengers and six crew on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 experienced physical injuries and emotional trauma from the accident on Jan. 5, according to the complaint. “The pressure change made ears bleed and combined with low oxygen, loud wind noise and traumatic stress made heads ache severely,” lawyers for the plaintiffs said in the suit. “Passengers were shocked, terrorized and confused, thrust into a waking nightmare, hoping they would live long enough to walk the earth again.” Boeing is facing scrutiny from US regulators, who have opened a formal investigation into the company’s aircraft operations following the incident. CEO Dave Calhoun said “a quality escape” compromised the safety of jet, but the company is still trying to understand exactly what went wrong. Boeing declined to comment on the lawsuit. Alaska Airlines took delivery of the Max 9 jet from Boeing around Nov. 11, according to the complaint. Since the blowout on Flight 1282, inspections found some bolts that secure door plugs on similar Max 9 planes owned by Alaska Airlines and United Airlines were loose. Passengers on Flight 1282 said they experienced a “sudden loud explosive noise” before the left door plug shot off the aircraft. The cabin “suddenly and violently depressurized,” according to the suit. “The force of the depressurization ripped the shirt off a boy, and sucked cell phones, other debris, and much of the oxygen out of the aircraft,” the passengers claim in the lawsuit, adding that some pieces of seats near the opening were “torn off and expelled into the night.”<br/>