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Alaska Airlines passengers sue Boeing for 'waking nightmare'

By Daniella Genovese
Published  January 14, 2024 8:53am CST
Boeing
FOX Business

Alaska Airlines flight: Missing door plug found

Flight and aviation expert Steve Giordano joins LiveNOW's Andrew Craft to talk about the missing door plug that was found from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. He also discusses United Airlines finding loose bolts on some Boeing 737 Max 9s.

Six passengers are suing Boeing after an Alaska Airlines flight bound for California from Oregon had to make an emergency landing last week after a section of the plane blew out mid-flight. They are suing for injuries sustained as well as emotional trauma. 

The door plug on the 737 Max 9 plane, manufactured by Boeing, detached just minutes after Flight 1282 took off from Portland and reached 16,000 feet. The gaping hole sucked out cell phones and ripped a child's shirt off his body.

At the time, no serious injuries were reported. However, in the suit filed in Washington, the passengers claimed that "much of the oxygen" was sucked out of the plane and that "many of the oxygen masks did not seem to work." 

WATCH: ALASKA AIRLINES PASSENGER CAPTURES HORRIFYING MOMENTS AFTER PLANE PART BLEW OFF MID-AIR

According to the suit, some passengers, "despite tugging on the tubes, no oxygen flowed." The suit further noted that flight attendants attended to children and "carried oxygen bottles to some but did not or could not help all those whose oxygen masks seemed not to be functioning." 

The event also "bruised the bodies of some." Additionally, the passengers claimed that the pressure change caused ears to bleed "and combined with low oxygen, loud wind noise and traumatic stress made heads ache severely." 

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Investigator-in-Charge John Lovell examines the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX. (NTSB / Fox News)

While the suit claims some passengers were physically injured, it noted that most people if not everyone were "emotionally traumatized." 

"Passengers were shocked, terrorized and confused, thrust into a waking nightmare, hoping they would live long enough to walk the earth again," the suit continued. 

BOEING CEO HOLDS ALL-EMPLOYEE SAFETY MEETING FOLLOWING 737 MAX INCIDENT: ‘ACKNOWLEDGING OUR MISTAKE’

Representatives for Boeing did not respond to FOX Business' request for comment. 

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Photo of the Alaska Airlines plane after a panel blew out mid-flight and forced an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon. (KPTV)

Days after the incident, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun acknowledged the company made a "mistake" and that it would work with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the incident, to find out what caused it.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily grounded every Boeing 737 Max 9 with a plug door until it is ensured that "each can safely return to operation."

Alaska and United Airlines are the only U.S. carriers that operate that Boeing model. 

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The FAA also notified Boeing that it was investigating the company "to determine if Boeing failed to ensure completed products conformed to its approved design and were in a condition for safe operation in compliance with FAA regulations," the agency said in a statement. 

LINK: Get updates and more on this story at foxbusiness.com.