Alaska Airlines pilot who safely landed plane after panel blowout sues Boeing

The Alaska Airlines pilot who was hailed as a hero after safely landing a jet after a door plug panel flew off shortly after take-off is suing Boeing because he believes the plane maker wrongly tried to blame him and the rest of the crew in previous legal filings.

Captain Brandon Fisher was commended by the heads of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as well as Boeing executives for helping ensure none of the 177 people aboard flight 1282 were killed when the blowout happened in January 2024.

But Capt Fisher’s lawyers say that Boeing’s attempts to deflect liability in past lawsuits despite what the NTSB investigation found led to the pilot being sued by some passengers and caused him great distress.

“Boeing’s lie infuriated Captain Fisher as well, as he was being castigated for his actions as opposed to being lauded,” Capt Fisher’s lawyers, William Walsh and Richard Mummalo, wrote in the lawsuit filed in an Oregon court.

“Because he had flown Boeing aircraft for the entirety of his employment with Alaska Airlines, Boeing’s attempts to blame him felt like a deep, personal betrayal by a company that claimed to hold pilots in the highest regard.”

Four flight attendants previously sued Boeing over the incident last summer.

The NTSB investigation of the blowout found that four bolts securing what is known as the door plug panel were removed and never replaced during a repair as the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft was being assembled.

Boeing and key supplier Spirit Aerosystems, which has since been acquired by Boeing, were both implicated.

The bolts are hidden behind interior panels in the plane, so they are not something that could have been easily checked in a pre-flight inspection by the pilot or anyone else from the airline.

NTSB investigators determined the door plug was gradually moving upward over the 154 flights prior to this incident before it ultimately flew off.

The blowout occurred minutes after the flight took off from Portland, Oregon, and created a roaring air vacuum. Seven passengers and one flight attendant sustained minor injuries, but the plane was able to land safely.

The 2ft-by-4ft piece of fuselage covering an unused emergency exit behind the left wing had blown out. Only seven seats on the flight were unoccupied, including the two seats closest to the opening.

Boeing factory workers told NTSB investigators they felt pressured to work too fast and were asked to perform jobs they were not qualified for.

Capt Fisher’s lawsuit describes how he and the first officer acted quickly after losing cabin pressure when the panel blew out to fly the plane safely back to Portland while decreasing altitude and working with air traffic controllers to avoid any other planes in the area.

The head of the commercial plane unit at Boeing, Stan Deal, commended the Alaska Airlines crew for safely landing the plane in a memo to employees after the incident.

Boeing did not comment directly on this new lawsuit. But the company’s chief executive Kelly Ortberg has made improving safety a top priority ever since he took over the top job at Boeing in August 2024.

The FAA fined Boeing 3.1 million dollars (£2.3 million) over safety violations inspectors found after the door plug incident.

But in October the agency allowed Boeing to increase production of the 737 Max to 42 planes a month because its inspectors were satisfied with the measures the company has taken to improve safety.

Alaska Airlines also declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said the airline remains “grateful to our crew members for the bravery and quick-thinking that they displayed on Flight 1282 in ensuring the safety of all on board”.