Boeing, Alaska Air sued for $1 billion as Feds find issues with Boeing

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Three passengers onboard the Alaska Airlines flight that had to make an emergency landing after a door plug blew off mid-flight are suing the airline and Boeing for $1 billion, claiming negligence caused the incident, reports CBS news.

According to court documents, the passenger plaintiffs’ filed the Feb. 20 complaint in Oregon seeking both compensatory and punitive damages.

“As a direct result of the frightful, death-threatening failure of the Boeing aircraft, Mr. Kwok, Mr. Rinker, and Ms. Strickland suffered severe mental, emotional, and psychological injuries, including post-traumatic stress, and physical injuries,” the lawsuit says, noting how the sudden pressure change inside the cabin “caused some passengers’ ears to bleed.”

Atlanta-based aviation firm Jonathan W. Johnson, LLC, filed the complaint and said in a news release that it hopes “to hold Boeing accountable for its negligence which had caused extreme panic, fear, and post-traumatic stress.” It called the blow-out on flight 1282 ” a preventable incident” that not only threatened the lives of passengers and crew on board that specific plane, but others manufactured by Boeing that were found during subsequent investigations to have similar defects.

Federal regulators say they have found multiple instances in which Boeing and its key supplier lack adequate measures to control for quality in the manufacturing of jetliners, the Associated Press reported Monday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that it found problems with parts handling and storage, and other areas. The FAA says it has given Boeing and supplier Spirit AeroSystems a summary of findings from a six-week audit. However, the agency isn’t immediately making details of its findings public. The FAA has stepped up its scrutiny of Boeing since Jan. 5, when a panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 over Oregon, the AP reported.

When asked for a comment, a Boeing spokesman referred to a statement last week in which CEO David Calhoun said the company now has a “clear picture of what needs to be done” and is “totally committed to meeting this challenge.”

The Associated Press and CBS News contributed to this report.