Huy Tran, who was on the Alaska Airlines flight seated in the row behind the door blowout on a Boeing aircraft in January, described the terror of the moment to Newsmax on Wednesday and how it has affected his life.
Tran is one of four passengers to file a new lawsuit against Boeing and Alaska Airlines seeking punitive, compensatory, and general damages. Both companies deny any legal responsibility for injuries allegedly caused to dozens of passengers on the flight.
Tran told Newsmax’s “American Agenda” that “we boarded the plane and it just took off and everything was going fine just as normal.”
But, just as he got settled in and closed his eyes and ready to relax, Tran said he “heard something flying away from the plane in a whoosh.”
He opened his eyes to see that “the door was already gone, the air started rushing in, extremely fast, extremely loud and extremely cold. It was very terrifying. … I thought we were going to die as the hole was so big.”
Most items, including the tray table, were sucked out of the plane.
Tran said that during this experience he had “fear, shock, and it was very terrifying.”
He said he reached for his cellphone to start sending out messages to his loved ones in case he died, but there was no signal, and he started recording.
Tran’s attorney, Timothy Loranger, said this is a strong case, pointing out that apparently “the door plug was installed without the bolts that would have held it in place, indicating a clear case for failure to properly assemble and maintain the aircraft.”
Tran said that a voucher of $1,500 was offered to him and the other passengers, but Tran said that airlines sometimes give more than that for trying to get people to volunteer to postpone their flight when a plane is overbooked.
He said that his job involves traveling, but since the incident he has told his boss that he has to stay grounded for awhile due to fear.
Tran said that he feel the airline companies “are responsible to keep the plane safe, but something clearly in the process has broken done, including the agencies that supervise the process.”
Loranger said he has not calculated a dollar value in the lawsuit and that it’s for a jury to decide.
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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