Disastrous Plane Crash That eliminateed 179 People Linked to Decades-Old Boeing Tech, Lawsuit Claims

NEED TO KNOW

• The Jeju Air Boeing 737 crash at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Dec. 29, 2024, killed 179 people

• Fourteen households of the victims filed a lawsuit against Boeing on Oct, 14 of this 12 months, alleging that a hen strike triggered mechanical failures that hampered the pilots’ efforts to land the airplane safely

• Boeing didn’t immediately reply to PEOPLE’s request for remark

Fourteen households of the victims from the Jeju Air Boeing 737 crash that killed 179 people in 2024 are suing Boeing, claiming mechanical defects prevented the pilots from touchdown the airplane safely.

On Dec. 29, 2024, the plane carrying 175 passengers and six crew members was flying in from Bangkok when it “veered off the runway” after touchdown and “collided” with a concrete fence at South Korea’s Muan International Airport, South Korean news company Yonhap and GWN beforehand reported.

Two people, a pair of flight attendants, have been reportedly the only survivors and rescued with “mid to severe” accidents.

A grievance filed on Tuesday, Oct. 14, by the Seattle-based Hermann Law Group in Washington state on behalf of the 14 households, said that as the airplane approached the runway, it skilled a hen strike that set off a “massive failure of nearly all of its antiquated electrical and hydraulic systems — designed in the 1960s — that were required to safely land the aircraft.”

“As a direct result of these multiple failures, the pilots found themselves robbed of critical systems required to land the aircraft safely,” the grievance later added. “The pilots struggled desperately to complete a go-around to make a belly-landing too fast and too far down the runway … Upon impact the aircraft exploded in [a] fiery ball killing 179 of the 181 onboard.”

Among the causes of actions cited in the grievance are negligence, breach of guarantee and strict legal responsibility. The grievance alleged, among other issues, that Boeing failed to present a protected and efficient Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS), and failed to correctly practice pilots to safely operate, observe and reply to the plane’s flight systems.

The grievance also alleged that the plane was “not reasonably safe as designed,” and that the company’s selections in the design of the 737-800 have been “not reasonably safe in responding to a birdstrike.”

The doc additional added that the households of the victims are searching for financial damages, although their quantities weren’t specified.

“Rather than admitting its fault in this tragic accident, Boeing resorts to its old, worn out ‘blame the pilots’ tactic,” Charles Herrmann, an attorney for the plaintiffs, per his firm’s news release. “These pilots make easy targets; they perished in the flames with the passengers. They cannot defend themselves. Bereaved Families deserve the truth. Met with evasion in Korea, these plaintiffs seek justice in U.S. courts where we can legally compel them to reveal the truth.”

Boeing didn’t immediately reply to PEOPLE’s request for remark. The company told The New York Times that it doesn’t remark on litigation.

As The New York Times, GWN and The U.Okay. Times reported in July, the airplane’s pilots appeared to have made deadly errors during the emergency touchdown in the minutes following the hen strike. After months of investigation, evidence confirmed that pilots turned off the left engine, instead of the appropriate, according to a report reviewed by GWN.

The engine that was turned off was not as badly broken by the birds, and shutting it down eliminated the engine’s main source of thrust, The New York Times reported. With less electrical energy, the airplane landed without its touchdown gear in place, inflicting the devastating eruption. Investigators discovered that there have been no points with either engine before the crash, according to the paper.

“If the pilots lost their displays after the bird strike, they may have had no clear indication of which engine was damaged,” aviation skilled Joe Jacobsen told The New York Times.

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A spokesperson for Jeju Air said in a assertion on July 23 that the airline “has been actively cooperating with the relevant authorities throughout the investigation process.”

“We remain fully committed to providing any additional support as needed and are currently awaiting the final results,” the spokesperson added.

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