Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max incident: Flight attendants file lawsuit against aircraft manufacturer

During an Alaska Airlines flight in the United States in January 2024, the blocked left door of a 737 MAX 9 detached from the fuselage in mid-flight, causing the aircraft to lose pressure.
Nearly a year and a half after the incident that went viral, four flight attendants on board Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 , whose door stopper detached in January 2024, announced they had filed a lawsuit against Boeing for "physical and mental injuries."
On January 5, 2024, during the climb phase of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 operating Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, a door plug—a cover blocking a redundant emergency exit—came loose, leaving a gaping hole in the fuselage and causing a few minor injuries. This incident exposed the aircraft manufacturer's quality problems .
Skip the adAdam Fisher, Michelle Hughes, Steven Maller and Christine Vasconcellos filed the lawsuit claiming "physical and mental injuries," "emotional distress" following the ejection from the door and decompression in the cabin, as well as "other personal and financial damages."
"This act of negligence caused physical and psychological damage, which profoundly affected my personal and professional life. It resulted in many difficulties in returning to my dream job, which I practiced with pride," Michelle Hughes said in a statement. Christine Vasconcellos, for her part, believes that "this event should never have happened."
Their lawyer, Tracy Brammeier, praised the "courage" of the four crew members to ABC News . "They followed the instructions to the letter by giving priority to passengers, despite their fears for their own lives. They deserve full compensation for this traumatic and upsetting experience, caused by Boeing's negligence in the production process of the 737 MAX." When contacted by the American press, the American aeronautics giant declined all requests for comment on this case.
In early February 2024, a month after the incident, a preliminary report, damning for the aeronautics giant, was published: the absence of wear or deformation in certain locations indicated that "four bolts intended to prevent the cap door from moving upward were missing before it moved." The report pointed to writings and photos showing that Boeing employees had removed these bolts during an inspection at its Renton assembly plant (northwest).
The Flight 1282 incident brought Boeing's quality problems to the forefront, affecting three of its four commercial aircraft families (the 737, 787 Dreamliner, and 777). It led to audits and investigations (by police, the courts, and Congress), increased scrutiny by regulators, a change in management, and the reopening of the criminal case related to the 2018 and 2019 crashes (which killed 346 people).
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