Boeing and Alaska Airlines have settled one of many lawsuits filed against them after the January 2024 midflight blowout, while three more claims are set to go to trial next year.

Dozens of passengers on board Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 sued the airline and 737 maker Boeing, but those lawsuits have largely been on hold as the National Transportation Safety Board investigated the incident. Now, after the NTSB issued its final report earlier this month, the discovery process can accelerate, according to attorneys representing passengers.

One lawsuit on behalf of 51 people, including passengers and their spouses, is scheduled to go to trial in January. Another representing 35 passengers is slated for a trial in March, while a third trial for seven people, including three children, is set to begin in September 2026.

A fourth lawsuit, representing three Oregon residents on board the flight, was settled earlier this month, according to attorneys, marking the first case related to the blowout over Portland to reach a legal conclusion. That case stood out among the original slate of lawsuits because the plaintiffs sought $1 billion in damages.

The details of the settlement are confidential.

Alaska declined to comment on the litigation. Boeing did not offer comment on the settlement. Both companies have previously denied the allegations against them, including claims that the companies acted negligently.

Daniel Laurence, an attorney with the Seattle-based Stritmatter Law firm who is representing 51 people in the case set to go to trial in January, said he expects more lawsuits could be coming, as suits like the one filed by his firm wind through the legal system.

“The important thing is that we’re driving ahead and that we will be holding the defendants’ feet to the fire here,” Laurence said. “Our clients want accountability.”

The final report

On Jan. 5, 2024, a panel flew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 shortly after takeoff from Portland. The NTSB determined that four bolts meant to hold the panel in place had not been reinstalled properly, leaving the panel to slowly move up and out over the course of several flights, until it flew off at 16,000 feet in the air during Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.

The plane landed safely, with some passengers reporting minor injuries, but it kicked off over a year of lawsuits, congressional hearings and regulatory scrutiny as investigators worked to determine how the panel came to be reinstalled incorrectly, and why it wasn’t fixed before leaving Boeing's Renton factory.

Alaska, Boeing and supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the fuselage for the 737 and is set to be acquired by Boeing, have all been hit with lawsuits from passengers on board the flight. In those cases, attorneys representing passengers have argued Boeing failed to ensure the aircraft was built properly and was safe to fly, while accusing the company of prioritizing speed in manufacturing over safety.

Alaska, attorneys alleged, violated its contract as a “common carrier” to provide the highest duty of care to its passengers.

Earlier this month, the NTSB concluded that the blowout happened because of long-term shortcomings at Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency tasked with overseeing the manufacturer’s quality and safety processes.

At a June hearing, the NTSB said Boeing failed to provide “adequate training, guidance and oversight to ensure … manufacturing personnel could consistently and correctly comply” with the company’s processes.

The FAA’s “ineffective compliance enforcement surveillance” contributed to the accident, the safety board continued.

A $1 billion claim

The first legal conclusion in the panel blowout saga – the Oregon settlement – comes shortly after the NTSB closed its investigation into the door plug incident.

Jonathan Johnson, one of the attorneys representing the three Oregon passengers, told The Seattle Times in 2024 when the lawsuit was filed that the $1 billion dollar figure was necessary to “get Boeing to change its conduct. It’s going to take a number on that scale.”

The original 41-page complaint filed in February 2024 in Oregon included a sprawling history of Boeing, outlining more than a dozen prior safety incidents involving Boeing aircraft and delving into CEO salary.

In an amended complaint filed in May, the plaintiffs scaled back their accusations, claims and financial demands.

The original complaint included five claims against Boeing and two against Alaska, as well as a request for compensatory and punitive damages. The amended complaint included just two claims, accusing both Boeing and Alaska of negligence, and sought only compensatory damages, with no specified amount.

On July 7, a U.S. district court judge in Portland dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs cannot bring the same claims again. The court filing said all three plaintiffs, Boeing and Alaska had reached an agreement.

Digging deeper

For the cases that are still pending, attorneys are hoping the discovery process will shed more light on what went wrong.

Laurence, from the Stritmatter firm, and Mark Lindquist, a Tacoma-based attorney pursuing the lawsuit set to go to trial in March, both said they intend to seek more information about cabin depressurization warnings that went off on three earlier flights involving the Alaska Airlines plane. As a result, Alaska decided not to fly the jet on long-range trips over water.

The NTSB said early on that the warnings were likely not related to the panel blowout and reiterated in its final report that there was “no evidence” that the two events were associated.

Still, the attorneys hope to dig deeper into Alaska’s maintenance and inspection decisions, as well as Boeing’s safety culture and history.

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