On January 5, during a flight from Portland, Oregon to California, a recently manufactured Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft experienced a sudden and forceful release of pressure at an altitude of 16,000 feet when a door plug blew out of the fuselage.

Lindquist, the attorney, initially brought a lawsuit on January 16, claiming that passengers had suffered emotional and physical harm, such as intense stress, anxiety, trauma, and hearing impairment. In the Amended Complaint, Lindquist includes additional passengers and accuses Boeing and Alaska Airlines of further acts of negligence.

New allegations include a claim, “there was a whistling sound coming from the vicinity of the door plug on a previous flight of the subject plane. Passengers noticed the whistling sound and brought it to the attention of flight attendants who reportedly informed the pilot or first officer.”

No known further action was taken, “After the pilot checked cockpit instruments, which purportedly read normal.”

Furthermore, Lindquist references the preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which discovered that in the event of depressurization, the cockpit door was designed to explosively detach. The pilots and crew were not made aware of this particular aspect of the door’s design.

“The resulting shock, noise, and communication difficulties contributed to a lack of proper communication between the flight crew and passengers, thereby intensifying confusion and stress,” according to the lawsuit.

It was alleged Boeing should have fixed their quality control issues after 346 people died in the Max 8 crashes.

“Boeing is still cutting corners on quality. The company is cutting so many corners, they’re going in circles.”

The NTSB report found Boeing delivered the plane to Alaska Airlines with four retaining bolts missing, which resulted in the eventual door plug blowout.