Three passengers on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, where a door seal blew, are suing the airline and Boeing for $1 billion.

Three passengers on an Alaska Airlines plane had to make an emergency landing After the door plug exploded mid-flight She sued the airline and Boeing for $1 billion, claiming negligence caused the accident.

A complaint was filed on February 20 in Multnomah County, Oregon, on behalf of Kyle Rinker, Amanda Strickland and Kevin Kwok, all of whom were on board Alaska Flight 1282 when an unused exit door exploded. Separate from the plane Minutes from a scheduled flight from Portland to Ontario, California, in early January. Multnomah County includes Portland.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, to be determined at trial, from Boeing, the giant company that made the 737 MAX 9 plane flown by Alaska Airlines.

“As a direct result of the horrific and fatal 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 that the sudden change in cabin pressure “caused a hemorrhage.” The ears of some passengers.

Jonathan W. Johnson, an Atlanta-based aviation law firm that filed the complaint on behalf of Kwok, Rinker and Strickland, said in a statement: New release It hopes “Boeing will be held accountable for its negligence that caused severe panic, fear, and post-traumatic stress.” It described the explosion of Flight 1282 as a “preventable accident” that threatened not only the lives of passengers and crew on board that plane, but also other planes manufactured by Boeing, which were found during subsequent investigations to have similar defects.

The lawsuit claims the incident on Flight 1282 is “just one terrible chapter in the evolving story of Boeing and Alaska Airlines putting profits above safety.”

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 It took off from Portland International Airport just before 5 p.m. PT on January 5, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, and returned safely to the same starting point as part of an emergency landing about 40 minutes later. The plane was about six minutes into its scheduled flight to California, flying at an altitude of 16,000 feet, when one of the exit doors separated. A video on social media, obtained by CBS News at the time, showed a large hole in the side of the plane, which at the time was carrying 174 passengers and six crew members.

Although the plane landed safely in Portland, several passengers suffered minor injuries and lost their phones and other personal belongings that were pulled from the hatch in the plane. One passenger, a teenager who was originally sitting with his mother in the row next to the damaged door panel, His shirt was torn Because of the force of the strong winds, another passenger, Kelly Bartlett, told CBS News senior transportation and national correspondent Chris Ann Cliffe after the accident.

Preliminary findings of the National Transportation and Safety Board's investigation into the accident found that four key bolts were intended to hold the door plug in place. They were missing from the plane. “Four bolts preventing upward movement of the MED plug were missing before the MED plug moved upwards away from the stop pads,” the agency said in an early February report.

Following the incident, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines canceled flights on Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft as inspections began. Both companies said They found loose hardware On grounded aircraft of this model. The FAA eventually ordered it Temporary universal grounding All Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft were subject to an “immediate inspection,” and it is conducting an ongoing investigation into the plane to find out what went wrong on Flight 1282, and whether Boeing “failed to ensure” that its planes “were in a safe condition.” Operating in accordance with FAA regulations.”

“This incident should never have happened and can never happen again,” the agency said in a statement in January. “The FAA continues to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the January 5 door seal incident.”

Boeing faces another Class action It was brought by passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight, which claims the Jan. 5 incident “physically injured some passengers and psychologically traumatized most, if not all, passengers.” Alaska Airlines is not named as a defendant in that lawsuit.

CBS News has contacted both Boeing and Alaska Airlines for comment on the latest billion-dollar lawsuit. The airline said it could not “comment on the pending engagement or the ongoing NTSB investigation,” while Boeing said: “We do not have anything to add.”