An Alaska Airlines captain has sued Boeing for $10 million, accusing the manufacturer of “scapegoating” the crew after the plane he was piloting lost a door cover mid-flight, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the aircraft. Brandon Fisher was at the helm of a Boeing 737 MAX that took off from Portland, Oregon, for Ontario, California in January 2024. At 16,000 feet, the plane lost a door plug covering a deactivated emergency exit. The pilots declared an emergency and descended below 10,000 feet so there would be enough oxygen to breathe normally, even with a door-sized hole in the left side of the plane. Fisher and his first officer, Emily Wiprud, landed the plane safely with only minor injuries reported. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board later found that when the plane left the Boeing factory, it was missing key bolts securing the door plug. But in a class action lawsuit related to the incident, Boeing denied responsibility on the grounds that its products were “improperly maintained or misused by persons and/or entities other than Boeing.” According to Fisher’s suit, those words were “clearly directed” at the captain in an attempt to “paint him as the scapegoat for Boeing’s numerous failures,” causing him to suffer emotional distress on top of other “life-changing impacts” caused by the incident.
