A Portland couple who were on the Alaska Airlines 737-MAX 9 plane whose door exploded mid-flight is suing Boeing and Alaska Airlines for $1 billion after being traumatized by the incident, and even the sounds of planes flying Over their heads they triggered flashbacks.
Kyle Rinker, 29, was with his girlfriend, Amanda Strickland, and fellow passenger Kevin Kwok, traveling to Ontario, California on Alaska Flight 1282 when five minutes During the flight, a sudden loud “pop” was heard as one of the plane’s door plugs was thrown through the plane’s fuselage.
The trio was seated in row 27, just one row behind row 26, where a gaping hole was created in the side of the plane.
This caused a sudden blast of cold air as the plane climbed to 16,000 feet and oxygen masks deployed from the ceiling panels.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants (Boeing and Alaska Airlines) ignored obvious warning signs and that the flight should never have taken off.
Kyle Rinker and his girlfriend Amanda Strickland were aboard the Alaska Airlines flight flying to Ontario, California, when a door plug exploded, causing a hole in the plane.
Passengers’ oxygen masks hang from the ceiling panels next to a missing window and a portion of a side wall of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which was headed to Ontario, California.
A photo shows the door panel shattered after landing safely at the Portland airport.
“We took off fine and then within just five minutes we heard a loud bang,” Rinker said. KGW.
“We were sitting there trying to relax… and then, that just happens.” The oxygen masks come down and they say, ‘Oh wow, something’s happening.’ We have to put this on.
‘We were on 27E and F, and that was 26A, B and C, so we were pretty close. The wind just came whipping at him. Suddenly it was very, very cold.
Fortunately, row 26 was empty and no one was injured in the terrifying incident.
Two months later, Rinker says he is now irritated by the sounds of planes flying overhead and wants to seek punitive damages for systemic risks.
‘There has been a crazy avalanche of information. Of course, we wanted to learn about… it was just a lot of things. Where we live, we hear a lot of airplane and airplane sounds, so that causes us to hear that sound again. And no, we haven’t been on a plane since. “I’m not sure when it will happen again.”
“I don’t think a day has gone by that we haven’t thought about it,” added Strickland, Rinker’s girlfriend.
Everything was very intense. We couldn’t hear anything that was going on. The only thing we felt was the air and we heard the sound of the air passing by.’
Rinker said the incident is affecting the daily lives of him and his girlfriend Amanda Strickland, and even the sounds of passing planes triggered them both, causing flashbacks.
Fortunately on 26A, the seat next to where the explosion occurred was not occupied
NTSB investigators are seen in the cockpit as they conducted their inspection after the 737 MAX 9 was grounded.
The door flew off and landed in the backyard of a suburban home in Portland, Oregon.
Investigators say bolts that helped secure the panel to the Boeing plane were missing before the panel blew up mid-flight in January.
Attorney Jonathan Johnson said that although the plane maker acknowledged its role in the explosion and promised to fix similar problems so they don’t happen in the future, the lawsuit will push both companies to prioritize safety.
“A lot of people have told us, ‘Oh, I’m sorry for what you went through,’ and I think, ‘Oh, it could have been so much worse, still bad.’ I think about that almost every day,” Rinker said.
The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County, aims to hold Alaska companies and Boeing accountable for compromising passenger safety.
While Boeing has already acknowledged its responsibility in the incident and pledged to address the issues, attorney Jonathan Johnson, who represents the passengers, emphasized the need for the lawsuit to force both companies to prioritize safety instead of relying on luck.
“These are primarily systemic problems at Boeing, which endanger the lives of everyone in the public who travels on Boeing airplanes,” Johnson said. ‘They shouldn’t rely on luck to prevent the death of a plane full of people.
‘The problem with Alaska, on this particular plane, they had several warnings, air pressure monitor warnings. In fact, I think they had said that this plane couldn’t fly over water.
‘I think some of their recent problems are that they outsource some of the manufacturing, even if they have proper safety protocols at Boeing. When they use outside contractors, they don’t necessarily ensure that the contractors follow the same safety protocols, so a contractor could send a part that doesn’t meet those safety protocols.
Rinker also says he believes the situation could have been much worse, underscoring the daily impact of the ordeal.
Plastic covers the outside of the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX Flight 1282 after landing safely
Investigators inspecting the Alaska Airlines plane that was destroyed when a door exploded at 16,000 feet are looking into whether four bolts that were supposed to help hold the panel in place might have been missing when the plane took off.
Boeing 737-9 MAX rolled off assembly line in November 2023, according to FAA records
Boeing and Alaska Airlines have not commented on the lawsuit.
Investigators inspected the plane to see if four bolts that were supposed to help hold the panel in place might have been missing when the plane took off.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducted the inspection of the aircraft after the door landed in the backyard of a suburban home in Portland, Oregon.
At a news conference, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy stated that it was likely due to the fact that passengers next to the explosion remained in their seats because they were wearing seat belts.
Alaska and United Airlines separately reported finding loose pieces in the panels (or door plugs) of some other Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes.
Alaska said that when it began examining its MAX 9s, “initial reports from our technicians indicate that some loose components were visible on some aircraft.”
In January, Boeing was sued by shareholders who said the company prioritized profits over safety and misled them about its commitment to making safe planes before the Jan. 5 incident.
According to a proposed class action lawsuit, Boeing spent more than four years after the crashes of two other MAX planes in October 2018 and March 2019, which killed 346 people, assuring investors that it was “focused” on safety and that he would not sacrifice security for profit.
Shareholders said Boeing’s statements were false and misleading because they obscured “poor quality control” on its assembly line and caused its stock price to inflate.