An Alaska Airlines pilot who was widely hailed as a hero for landing the jet safely after a the door plug panel flew off shortly after takeoff, he is suing Boeing because he believes the plane’s maker has wrongfully tried to blame him and the rest of the crew in past legal filings.
Captain Brandon Fisher was praised by the heads of the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration and even Boeing executives for not helping any of the 177 people on board. years 1282 were killed when the explosion occurred in January 2024.
But Fisher’s lawyers say 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 causing him great suffering.
“Boeing’s lie also infuriated Captain Fisher because he was reprimanded for his actions, not praised,” Fisher’s attorneys, William Walsh and Richard Mummalo, wrote in the lawsuit filed in Oregon. “Having flown Boeing aircraft throughout his employment with Alaska Airlines, he viewed Boeing’s attempts to incriminate him as a deeply personal betrayal by a company that claimed to hold pilots in the highest esteem.”
Four flight attendants previously sued Boeing over an accident last summer.
The NTSB investigation After the explosion, it was discovered that four bolts securing what is known as the door stopper panel had been removed and were never replaced during the repair as the Boeing 737 Max 9 was being assembled. Both involved Boeing and key supplier Spirit Aerosystems, which has since been bought by Boeing.
The screws are hidden behind internal panels on the plane, so it’s not something the pilot or anyone else from the airline can easily check for during a pre-flight inspection. NTSB investigators found that the door stopper had been moving up gradually over the course of 154 flights prior to this accident before it finally flew away.
The explosion occurred minutes after the flight took off from Portland, Oregon, and created a roaring vacuum. Seven passengers and one flight attendant suffered minor injuries, but the plane managed to land safely.
A 2ft x 4ft (61cm x 122cm) hull piece covering unused emergency exit it exploded behind the left wing. Only seven seats in the flight were unoccupied, including the two seats closest to the hatch.
Boeing factory workers told the NTSB investigation he felt pressured to work too fast and were asked to do jobs for which they were not qualified.
Fisher’s lawsuit describes how he and the first officer acted quickly after losing cabin pressure when the panel exploded to safely fly the plane back to Portland while lowering altitude and working with air traffic controllers to avoid any other aircraft in the area.
In a memo to employees after the accident, Boeing’s commercial aircraft unit chief, Stan Deal, praised the Alaska Airlines crew for landing the plane safely.
Boeing has not directly commented on this new lawsuit. But the company’s CEO, Kelly Ortberg, has made improving safety a top priority since taking the top job at Boeing in August 2024.
FAA earned Boeing $3.1 million over a safety violation that inspectors found after the door stopper accident. 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 had 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 courage and quick thinking they displayed on Flight 1282 in ensuring the safety of everyone on board.”
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