‘Why was that plane in the air?’: More passengers suing Alaska, Boeing over midair door plug blowout

Dozens of passengers have signed onto a class action lawsuit with the Strittmatter Firm. They’re suing Alaska Airlines as well as Boeing, which manufactures the 737-9 MAX jet.

Passengers who were onboard Alaska Airlines flight 1282 lost a door plug over Portland on Jan. 5. Susanna Anderson was sitting in the first row of the aircraft when she said she heard what sounded like an explosion.

“There was a rather very loud explosion so much so that my ears initially just started ringing,” she said. “Things began to fly in the air, papers, debris, some solid objects, it was pretty chaotic.”

Susanna said she had no idea a door plug had come off, leaving a huge hole in the side of the plane.

“I decided that this is when I would need to just come to terms with this being the end,” she said.

Garrett Cunningham was sitting in row 28 when the door came off.

“I hear this boom and in like a gush of air I look to my left and part of the plane is gone,” Cunningham said. “I wasn’t prepared to die on this flight.”

The two said oxygen masks fell from above. Anderson said she saw the flight attendants struggling to close the cockpit door.

“My eyes are glued to that opening and I’m just wondering what’s going to happen next and just thinking about the fact that this is it,” Cunningham said.

The two said they were preparing for a crash landing.

“Sent my son a message letting him know that he is and has been the best part of my life,” Anderson said.

The plane made an emergency landing back at PDX.

“It’s really upsetting and retraumatizing frankly to keep learning how close we were to dying,” Anderson said.

She said that when they deplaned, no one from the airline was around and a long line had formed at the customer service desk.

Alaska offered passengers $1,500 and counseling services. However, both Cunningham and Anderson said it’s not enough.

“When I found out that this plane was not being allowed to fly over the Pacific [Ocean], my first thought was ‘why in the heck was that plane in the air at all?’” Cunningham said. “So at that point, I felt it necessary to reach out to someone,”

“Alaska, Boeing, Spirit, whomever needs to understand how important this was and it’s only by the grace of God and ten minutes that I’m still here because ten minutes later I wouldn’t be here,” he added.

The incident is under investigation by the NTSB. A trial date has not been set for this civil suit.

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