When news broke that Alaska Airlines flight 1282 had a door plug blow out at 16,000 feet, it was understandably terrifying for those on board. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured, although a few cell phones did get sucked out of the plane. Passengers have since sued both Alaska Airlines and Boeing, the manufacturer of the plane they were on. And now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has contacted passengers saying they may be victims of a crime, NBC News reports.
Mark Lindquist, a lawyer representing the passengers in their lawsuit, shared the FBI’s letter with NBC News, which opens with the line, “I’m contacting you because we have identified you as a possible victim of a crime.” The letter went on to explain that a criminal investigation “can be a lengthy undertaking” and that it couldn’t reveal how much progress had been made but that they would be updated by email or through the bureau’s victim notification system.
This news follows an announcement earlier this month that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into the incident. This news came after a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary investigation found that the door plug had no bolts holding it in, causing it to fly off the plane shortly after takeoff. The DOJ is reportedly looking into whether or not Boeing properly followed the terms of a settlement it reached after a series of 737 MAX 8 crashes took the lives of 346 victims.
The settlement, which they reached in 2021 cost Boeing $2.5 billion and came with a condition that promised the feds would drop a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. charge after three years if Boeing complied with the terms of the agreement. If the DOJ finds Boeing violated the terms of the settlement, the aerospace giant could be prosecuted on that original charge. What the consequences of being found guilty would be or whether the DOJ would actually prosecute Boeing in the first place, however, still remains to be seen.