Alaska Airlines passengers complained they heard WHISTLING sound coming from inside Boeing 737 on flight before its door plug blew out, new lawsuit claims

Passengers aboard the near-catastrophic Alaska Airlines plane whose door was blown off in mid-air ignored the “whistling noise” made by travelers on an earlier flight, their attorney said Wednesday.

Attorney Mark Lindquist, who represents 22 passengers on Flight 1282 and is suing Boeing and Alaska Airlines, said in a new statement that the manufacturer “cuts so many corners that they start going in circles.”

The class action lawsuit was filed last month, and an amendment filed Wednesday alleged that “a whistling sound emanated from the area of ​​the door plug during an earlier flight of the subject aircraft.”

After passengers alerted staff, who then notified the pilot, it is alleged that no action was taken “after the pilot checked the cockpit instruments, which were reported to be normal.”

The door, previously used as an emergency exit but locked, exploded shortly after the plane reached 16,000 feet over Portland, Oregon, on January 5.

The lawsuit alleges a series of failures that led to the plug door being blown out, including crucial bolts missing from the door when it was sealed and oxygen masks not working properly.

A class action lawsuit against Alaska Airlines and Boeing alleges that passengers on an earlier flight alerted staff to a ‘whistling sound’ around the weak plug door

In Lindquist’s amendment this week, he escalated claims that passengers on board the flight suffered a number of emotional and physical injuries.

This included several claimants who claimed they suffered hearing loss, in addition to concussion, leg injuries, trauma, anxiety and emotional distress.

Lindquist also cited an emergency design feature on the cockpit door that caused it to swing open when the cabin depressurized, a feature the pilots did not know existed.

“The resulting shock, noise and communication problems contributed to a lack of proper communication between the flight crew and passengers, increasing confusion and stress,” the lawsuit said.

A month after the near-disaster, a preliminary report on the incident from the National Transportation Safety Board was released this week, offering the clearest picture yet of how the episode unfolded.

The most damning allegation concerned the missing latches, claiming that four key latches intended to prevent the vertical movement of the door plug were missing.

It was suggested that the oversight may have come from Boeing workers failing to replace them after removing the plug for repairs during assembly.

The damage patterns observed in the door plug and airframe indicated that the four bolts were not in place at the time of the incident, allowing the plug to separate from the stop pads.

A photo shows three locations (circled) where mounting bolts are missing after the door was removed and then reinstalled during a repair at Boeing’s Renton plant. A fourth location of a suspected missing bolt, top left, is not visible in the photo

Boeing workers removed the door plug to repair five defective rivets just forward of the panel. The location of the bad rivets is indicated above

The door plug was found in the backyard of a home after it blew out on January 5

Shortly after the incident, aviation exhaust The airflow reported that the plane involved in the incident was investigated by officials just a day before its window blew out.

The outlet claimed that on January 4, an intermittent warning light appeared as it taxied to a terminal from an earlier flight, prompting the airline to remove it from Extended Range Operations (ETOPS).

Later that same day, during a separate flight, the warning returned.

The Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft involved in the incident had reportedly only entered service in November 2023 and was virtually new by aviation standards, having reportedly completed fewer than 200 flights before the incident.

Terrified passengers have been given a glimpse inside the plane as it flew into a frenzy, while Emma Vu said she was asleep when she ‘felt the whole plane falling’.

She took to TikTok after surviving the horror near miss and revealed her panicked texts to her family: “The masks are coming down; I’m so scared right now; Please pray for me; Please, I don’t want to die.’

“At that moment I was so scared,” Vu said.

“The masks are falling and people are screaming,” she continued, alongside a tearful selfie she took in the moment she feared could be her last.

Passenger Emma Vu gave a chilling insight into the near-catastrophic flight, saying she “felt the whole plane fall” about 20 minutes after the horror Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.

Vu revealed her last texts to her family in which she begged ‘I don’t want to die’, and showed off a selfie she took in the moment she feared could be her last

After waking up to her window being blown out, Vu revealed the panicked text messages she sent to her family saying: ‘I don’t want to die’

“I’m so grateful for the ladies who sat next to me… they were so sweet to calm me down, and the flight attendants gave oxygen tanks to those who needed it more,” she said.

“But I panicked because my bag wouldn’t inflate – and that’s literally what they tell you in terms of safety, like, don’t worry, you’ll still get airflow… if you’re in fight or flight “I don’t think about that.”

‘It was just so scary, no one knew what was happening. The pilot came over and told everyone to put your mask on before helping others – literally word for word what they tell you in safety training.”

“One toddler’s shirt flew off and their phone flew out the window,” she added. “It was just so surreal.”

In the month-long investigation, investigators also analyzed work records from Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, the subcontractor that manufactured the plane’s fuselage and the door plug in question.

Records show the affected fuselage arrived at Boeing’s Renton, Washington, plant for assembly on August 31, 2023.

On September 1, 2023, a work order was created detailing five damaged rivets just forward of the door plug – which was reportedly the cause of the missing bolts.

Records and photos show that repairing the damaged rivets required removing the door plug, which involved removing the two vertical motion safety bolts and the two upper guide rail bolts.

After the work was completed, the door was replaced by Boeing workers, who apparently failed to replace the four crucial bolts.

The fuselage plug area of ​​Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX, which was forced to make an emergency landing with a hole in the fuselage, is seen during investigation

The Alaska plane returned to Portland Airport less than an hour after takeoff

While this week’s findings sparked outrage, the NTSB notes that the findings are preliminary and the investigation is ongoing.

The NTSB’s statement on a probable cause for the accident comes at the end of an investigation that could last a year or more.

“Whatever final conclusions are reached, Boeing is responsible for what happened,” CEO David Calhoun said in a statement.

‘An event like this should not happen on an aircraft leaving our factory. We just have to do better for our customers and their passengers.”

Spirit AeroSystems said it was reviewing the preliminary NTSB report and working with Boeing and regulators “to continuously improve our processes and meet the highest standards of safety, quality and reliability.”