Alaska Air passengers sue airline over 737 Max 9 door blowout

Alaska Airlines Inc. was sued by a group of passengers who said the company failed to adequately protect their safety by flying the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet that experienced a midair blowout of a door plug earlier this month.

Passengers on the Jan. 5 flight claim the airline should have known about lapses in the quality of safety inspections being conducted on the aircraft and the possible use of “incorrect or inferior” parts, according to an amendment to the lawsuit they filed Friday in Washington state court against plane maker Boeing Co. 

“Alaska Airlines breached its duty to its passengers by failing to ground” the plane before the flight, lawyers for the passengers said in the new complaint.

Alaska Airlines declined to comment on the suit.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from Alaska Airlines and Boeing for the physical injuries and emotional trauma experienced by the 171 passengers and six crew on Flight 1282, which made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, after the blowout. 

The passengers claim Alaska Airlines should have imposed more stringent quality-inspection requirements on Boeing before accepting the 737 Max 9 jets it purchased. The suit said the carrier was aware of past safety issues with Boeing planes.

The lawsuit points specifically to the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March of 2019, which together killed 346 passengers and crew. The Justice Department struck a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing that was set to expire hours after this month’s accident.

The case is Berry v. Boeing, 24-2-00824-1, Superior Court of Washington (King County).