Alaska Airlines passengers sue carrier, Boeing for $1 billion over mid-flight panel blowout

Three Alaska Airlines passengers filed a lawsuit against the airline carrier and Boeing for $1 billion over the mid-flight panel blowout incident that occurred early this year.

In January, an Alaska Airlines flight from Oregon to California was forced to make an emergency landing after an exit door panel blew out.

In a February press release, Jonathan W. Johnson LLC, an aviation legal firm based in Atlanta, stated that three individuals on the terrifying flight recently lodged a lawsuit against the airline and Boeing.

The complaint, filed by the law firm on behalf of Kyle Rinker, Amanda Strickland, and Kevin Kwok, claimed the incident was an "avoidable accident that put hundreds of innocent lives in danger."

"Further inspections should have been made before the aircraft was placed in service. It seeks to hold Boeing accountable for its negligence which had caused extreme panic, fear, and post-traumatic stress. This experience jeopardized the lives of the 174 passengers and 6 crew members that were on board. For those reasons, the lawsuit seeks substantial punitive damages from Boeing for what was a preventable incident and because the defects in manufacturing impacted numerous other aircraft and threatened the lives of the passengers on all Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, which were all grounded by the FAA following the incident," the legal firm stated.

The lawsuit, which seeks both compensatory and punitive damages, claimed that "the frightful, death-threatening failure of the Boeing aircraft" caused the three passengers "severe mental, emotional, and psychological injuries, including post-traumatic stress, and physical injuries," CBS News reported. A sudden pressure change "caused some passengers' ears to bleed," it added.

While the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board's review is still underway, a preliminary report released in February found that the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane may have left the factory without the bolts necessary to secure the exit door panel in place. The report noted that the door is designed to be held shut by four bolts and 12 "stop fittings."

After completing an extensive review, the Federal Aviation Administration's expert panel members found "a disconnection between Boeing's senior management and other members of the organization on safety culture." The panel's report claimed there were "gaps" in Boeing's safety, including "a lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels of the organization."

Boeing is already facing a class-action lawsuit filed by the flight's passengers that claims the blowout "physically injured some passengers and emotionally traumatized most if not all on board."

The aircraft manufacturer's shareholders also filed a complaint against the company, stating that its "serious safety lapses" and "poor quality control" were to blame for the January mid-air blowout.

Alaska Airlines told CBS News that it cannot comment on pending litigation. Boeing told the news outlet that it did not "have anything to add."

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