More than a dozen passengers aboard an Emirates airline flight that crashed in August 2016 sued plane-maker Boeing on Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, blaming an allegedly defective switch.
The Boeing 777-300 flight was headed to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from India.
All 300 people aboard Emirates Flight EK 521 survived the crash-landing in Dubai, scrambling down emergency slides before flames consumed the plane, but one firefighter was killed battling the blaze. It was the worst crash in the airline’s history.
The lawsuit alleges, among other problems, that the aircraft’s system prevented the operation of a switch at a critical moment and that the plane didn’t provide any warning to the crew that the switch wasn’t working.
The plaintiffs, who are residents of the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the UAE and Turkey, suffered serious physical and psychological injuries that will result in future medical bills and lost earnings, the lawsuit says.
A Boeing spokesperson declined to comment, noting the litigation is pending.
UAE investigators will look at the actions of the flight crew after no problems were found with the aircraft’s systems or engines, according to an Aug. 6 interim report from the the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority.
A probe into the Aug. 3, 2016, crash showed no abnormalities in Boeing’s 777-300’s systems after testing by the manufacturer and downloaded data analysis, according to UAE aviation officials.
“The investigation is working to determine and analyze the human performance factors that influenced flight crew actions during the landing,” according to a report on the authority’s website.
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