3 Portlanders aboard door plug blowout flight file $1B lawsuit against Boeing, Alaska Airlines

By Alma McCarty, KGW

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW/KTVZ) — On Jan. 5, 2024, Kyle Rinker and his girlfriend boarded an Alaska Airlines flight to Ontario, California. They'd taken this particular flight several times before, and were expecting to land about two hours later. 

However, on this day, what they experienced was anything but routine. 

"We took off fine and then just five minutes, and we heard the loud pop," he recalled. "We were just sitting there trying to relax ... and then, that thing just happens. The oxygen masks come down, just like, 'Oh, wow, something's going on. We got to get these on.'"

The sound was a door plug that blew off the plane, leaving a gaping hole. 

"We were diagonal across from there," he continued. "We were in 27E and F, and that was 26A, B and C, so we were pretty close. The wind just came rushing it. It was very, very cold all of the sudden, obviously, because you’re flying up there at 16,000 feet."

Rinker's reflected on these moments often during the last two months, as more news and updates roll in. 

"Crazy onslaught of information. Of course, we wanted to learn about ... it was just a lot of stuff," he said. "Where we live, we hear a lot of plane sounds and jet sounds, so that kind of triggers hearing that sound again. And no, we have not been on a plane since. I’m not sure when that will happen again."

Now, he and two other passengers — including his girlfriend — are suing Boeing and Alaska Airlines, seeking punitive damages of $1 billion for systemic risks. The lawsuit was filed late last month in Multnomah County, KGW reports. 

"This is mostly about the systemic problems at Boeing, which is jeopardizing the lives of the entire traveling public who travel on Boeing aircraft," said attorney Jonathan Johnson. "They should not be trusting luck to avoid a planeload of people being killed."

REPORTS: Justice Department reviewing Boeing door plug blowout investigation

Johnson explained although the aircraft manufacturer acknowledged their role in the blowout and have made promises to fix problems and do better, the lawsuit will push both companies to prioritize safety. 

"We've had so many people say, 'Oh, sorry about what you went through,' and I'm thinking like, 'Oh, it could've been a lot worse, even still with it being bad.' I think about that almost daily," Rinker said. 

KGW reached out to both Boeing and Alaska Airlines for comment. Both declined our request.