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(NEW YORK) — Four passengers are suing Alaska Airlines and Boeing for the “terror” they say they experienced after a door plug “blew off” during their flight, according to a complaint filed Tuesday.

The door plug for the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max 9 fell off a few minutes after Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 took off from Portland International Airport on Jan. 5, depressurizing the cabin and exposing passengers to open air thousands of feet above the ground, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. No one was seriously injured and the plane made an emergency landing safely.

Two California residents and two Washington state residents who were on the flight are suing the two companies for alleged injuries including “intense fear, distress, anxiety, trauma [and] physical pain,” according to the complaint.

“Plaintiffs feared the gaping hole in the fuselage, rapid depressurization, and general havoc was a prelude to the plane’s destruction and their own likely death,” the complaint stated.

“This is the end,” one plaintiff thought, according to the complaint.

Some passengers also sent “what they thought would be their final text messages in this world,” according to Seattle attorney Mark Lindquist, who filed the complaint on behalf of the four passengers.

One plaintiff texted, “Mom our plane depressed. We’re in masks. I love you,” according to the complaint.

The lawsuit alleges that Boeing delivered a plane with a faulty door plug and that Alaska management had deemed the aircraft unsafe to fly over the ocean but continued to fly it over land, according to the complaint.

In an interview with ABC News on Jan. 7, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said Alaska pilots had reported a pressurization alert on that plane three times between Dec. 7 and Jan. 4, but it was determined to be benign. According to Homendy, Alaska ran maintenance tests and put the plane back in service, but issued a restriction for the plane to not fly over water to Hawaii. The plane had been in operation since Oct. 31, federal records show.

The lawsuit, which was filed in King County Superior Court in Washington state, is seeking unspecified damages for alleged negligence against Boeing and Alaska Airlines. It also alleges product liability against Boeing under the Washington Product Liability Act, alleging that the plane was “unreasonably dangerous and defective,” according to the complaint.

The incident remains under investigation by the NTSB.

“Though it’s too soon to know for sure what exactly went wrong,” Lindquist said in a statement. “We do know Boeing is ultimately responsible for the safety of their planes and Alaska Airlines is ultimately responsible for the safety of their passengers.”

Alaska Airlines grounded its Max 9 fleet shortly after the incident occurred. In response to the lawsuit, Alaska Airlines said it cannot comment on pending litigation.

Boeing had no comment on the lawsuit.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded approximately 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes worldwide in the wake of the incident.

The FAA also is increasing its oversight over Boeing and began an audit of the company’s production and manufacturing last week.

Spirit AeroSystems — which produces the fuselage of the Boeing 737 Max 9 and was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit — said it is “committed” to supporting the FAA’s audit of Boeing’s production line and suppliers.

“Spirit AeroSystems is committed to supporting the FAA’s audit of production and manufacturing processes to ensure compliance with the FAA Quality Management System. As a trusted partner to our customers, Spirit’s top priorities are quality, product integrity and compliance,” Spirit AeroSystems said in a statement.

During a meeting with employees at the 737 production facility in Renton, Washington, last week, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said the company is “going to approach” the incident by starting with an acknowledgment of “our mistake.”

“We’re going to approach it with 100% and complete transparency every step of the way,” Calhoun said during the meeting. “We are going to work with the NTSB who is investigating the accident itself to find out what the cause is.”

The incident could have been potentially more “catastrophic” under different conditions, according to Homendy. The two seats next to the missing door plug were empty, and the incident occurred about 10 minutes after takeoff — when passengers would have still had their seatbelts on — at about 16,000 feet.

“At 30,000, at 35,000 feet, the pressure differential is much greater, which means it would have been a much greater, explosive event — every violent — and it could have had catastrophic consequences,” Homendy told ABC News.

Alaska Airlines has offered full refunds to all passengers of Flight 1282, as well as a $1,500 cash payment “to cover any incidental expenses to ensure their immediate needs were taken care of,” the company said.

“My clients want accountability for Boeing and Alaska Airlines,” Lindquist said in a statement. “They also want assurances that this isn’t going to happen again to anyone.”

Other passengers on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 have sued Boeing over the incident in a proposed class-action suit.

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(NEW YORK) — A judge is expected to decide Wednesday if he will dismiss involuntary manslaughter charges against Daniel Penny, a former Marine who choked a man to death on a New York City subway car.

Penny’s attorneys argue that the victim, Jordan Neely, was “insanely threatening” at the time of the incident.

Prosecutors argue that Penny maintained his chokehold on Neely’s neck for six minutes, well past the point when Neely stopped “purposeful movement.”

Penny has pleaded not guilty to the charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of Neely on the F train on May 1, 2023, which captured Penny in video footage putting Neely in a chokehold.

Both sides are also expected to hear from the judge on evidentiary matters. No trial date has been set.

Penny held Neely for several minutes, and at some point, Neely stopped moving, but Penny continued to hold him for an extended period of time, according to assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass, who told the judge during Penny’s initial appearance in court on May 12.

Penny remained on the scene to talk with police following the incident, Steinglass said.

Some witnesses told police that Neely was yelling and harassing passengers on the train, authorities said.

Police sources had previously told ABC News that Penny was not specifically being threatened by Neely when he intervened and that Neely had not become violent and had not been threatening anyone in particular.

Penny’s attorneys have said that he was defending himself and others when he put Neely into the chokehold that caused his death.

The medical examiner determined Neely was killed by a chokehold and his death was ruled a homicide.

Neely was homeless at the time of the incident.

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(NEW YORK) — In a capital murder case that has been marked by secrecy and media restrictions, a lawyer for accused Idaho college killer Bryan Kohberger is now asking the judge to make public their arguments that he should rethink his decision to deny their ask to toss out the charges.

“Mr. Kohberger acknowledges the right of the public to be fully informed of the issues,” his lawyer wrote in a new filing posted to the docket Tuesday and filed on Friday.

Kohberger’s defense had previously made two different attempts to get the indictment against him dismissed. In one, they argued that the grand jury was given inaccurate instructions — that they used the wrong standard of proof. In the other, they argued that prosecutors withheld evidence that might aid Kohberger in defending himself, and biased the grand jury.

The judge denied both in mid-December. Just before Christmas, Kohberger’s team asked the judge to reconsider that decision — filing a request under seal.

Kohberger’s high-profile case has largely been veiled in secrecy due to a strict non-dissemination or so-called “gag” order in place. The defense has repeatedly criticized some media portrayals of their client, and the judge himself has chastised the media for what he called “disappointing” behavior filming proceedings by some members of the press. Both Kohberger’s defense and prosecutors leading the case against him have supported limiting cameras in the courtroom — or even banning them entirely.

Now, Kohberger’s lawyer wants the public to know where they stand, at least on this particular matter of asking the judge to rethink his decision to dismiss the charges.

“Capital case litigation is largely a matter of creating or avoiding as many appellate issues as possible. The prosecution wants to avoid them, the defense wants to create them,” said Matt Murphy, a former prosecutor in Orange County, California and ABC News legal contributor.

“The defense has already made their position clear on the trial record. That properly preserved the issue for appeal review,” Murphy added. “‘Unsealing’ it now just opens it up for the public. This has the twin dangers of poisoning prospective jurors, or running afoul of the Court’s desire not to try the case in the media.”

In their new filing, Kohberger’s lawyer says they only asked for those particular filings to be sealed in the first place “solely” because prosecutors wanted it — and they were on deadline to file the motion, so they acquiesced.

They say their client “has a right” for the relevant criminal rule “to apply as it is written rather than disadvantage him with items remaining sealed that are not within the scope” of that rule.

Arguments on Kohberger’s requests for the judge to reconsider his decision not to toss out the charges are set to be heard in pretrial hearings on Jan. 26.

Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed four University of Idaho students to death: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.

After a six-week hunt, police zeroed in on Kohberger as the suspect, arresting him in December 2022 at his family’s home in Pennsylvania. He was indicted in May and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

Kohberger could face the death penalty, if convicted.

His lawyers have said their client wasn’t in the home where the homicides occurred and was driving around alone that night.

In August, Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial, indefinitely delaying what was supposed to be an Oct. 2 start date.

A new trial date has not been set.

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(NEW YORK) — Four college students camping in Red River Gorge in Kentucky were rescued by helicopter Tuesday morning after getting stranded on Courthouse Rock, Powell County Search and Rescue said.

The four students from Asbury University were camping overnight and “underestimated the weather conditions,” Powell County officials said. After waking up to snow on Tuesday, the four realized it was unsafe to climb down from the Rock and called for help.

Members of Powell County Fire and Rescue were dispatched to assess the trail conditions for the rescue. After starting to trek to the top of Courthouse Rock, the rescue team realized the safest way to rescue the group was by helicopter.

The helicopter, flown by Kentucky State Police, was able to rescue the four students at 2:05 p.m. Tuesday.

Fortunately, none of the students were injured.

“Other than being cold, all four students seemed to be in good spirits,” Powell County officials said.

“This call was one of the most dangerous rescues ever attempted in the Gorge,” Powell County Fire and Rescue said. “Climbing Courthouse Rock is extremely treacherous even when conditions are favorable.”

Kentucky State Police, REDSTAR Wilderness EMS, MiddleFork Fire and Rescue, Powell County Search and Rescue and Wolfe County Search and Rescue assisted in the rescue efforts.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department is moving to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, against the Internal Revenue Service over its alleged failure to protect his tax information from disclosure by two whistleblowers.

Hunter Biden sued the IRS in September over claims made by a pair of veteran tax investigators, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, whom the younger Biden accused of waging a campaign to “to embarrass and inflict harm” on him by improperly sharing his private taxpayer information in media interviews.

Justice Department argued in a 22-page filing on Tuesday that the alleged wrongdoing described by Hunter Biden pertains to disclosures made by the whistleblowers’ personal attorneys — neither of whom are government employees — and should therefore be dismissed.

Hunter Biden also failed to show that the IRS demonstrated any “intentionality or willfulness” in its alleged failure to protect his taxpayer information, government lawyers argued, quoting the standard for bringing this cause of action.

“Even accepting Plaintiff’s factual allegations as true, they do not support a plausible inference that the agency intentionally or willfully failed to establish adequate technical or procedural safeguards to prevent disclosures from taking place,” DOJ attorneys wrote.

The two whistleblowers accused government prosecutors of mishandling their investigation into the president’s son — a claim that the Justice Department has denied.

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(WASHINGTON) — The full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected an effort by Twitter to appeal a ruling that allowed special counsel Jack Smith to access records from former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account as part of his federal election interference probe.

As ABC News previously reported, the social media company secretly tried to fight an effort by Smith to obtain metadata and a handful of direct messages allegedly sent by Trump from his Twitter account before the account was suspended shortly after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

On Tuesday, the full court did not issue an opinion accompanying its rejection of the appeal, though a minority of judges consisting of the court’s conservative jurists issued an accompanying statement that argued that the ruling ignored potentially relevant executive privilege issues.

The ruling from the court means that none of the Twitter records and data that Smith has obtained will be clawed back — though it’s unclear whether the social media company will seek to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

A district judge previously raised concerns about whether Twitter was taking action at the behest of its CEO Elon Musk, who has made statements favorable to Trump.

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(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — The shooter who killed five people and injured 40 at an LGBTQIA+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, pleaded not guilty to federal hate crimes Tuesday.

Anderson Aldrich was charged with more than 50 federal hate crime violations stemming from the November 2022 shooting at Club Q.

Aldrich, who opened with an AR-15 style rifle, pleaded guilty last year to state murder charges and sentenced to over 2,000 years in state prison.

Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Raymond Green Vance, and Ashley Paugh were killed in the incident.

As was described in detail in the aftermath of the attack, Aldrich was only stopped after two patrons forcibly removed the gun from him.

“The defendant’s attack on Club Q interfered with the club’s ability to do business and provide a safe, fun, and welcoming environment for patrons who had gathered there during and after the drag show as part of a weekend of events related to Transgender Day of Remembrance,” the court documents said.

The federal criminal complaint noted that Aldrich, who was 22 at the time, was wearing a tactical vest with ballistic plates and had “at least two additional magazines loaded with ammunition.

Though hate crimes resulting in death charge qualifies for the death penalty, court documents filed jointly by the Justice Department and Aldrich’s lawyer on Jan. 9 indicate there has been a plea agreement that removed the death penalty off the table.

“Among other provisions, the agreement provides that the defendant will plead guilty to every count of a 74-count Information charging him with federal hate crimes in violation of relevant provisions of the Shepard-Byrd Act, 18 U.S.C. § 249, and appurtenant gun crimes in violation of the relevant provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 924,” the court documents filed said.

“The United States is not seeking the death penalty in this case. The parties have agreed that multiple concurrent life sentences plus a consecutive sentence of 190 years imprisonment is sufficient but not greater than necessary to achieve the goals of criminal justice,” the court documents said.

The court docket indicates a plea hearing will be scheduled in the near future.

A lawyer for Aldrich did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel David Weiss’ office on Tuesday issued a biting rebuttal to Hunter Biden’s attempt to have three felony gun charges against him thrown out, calling Biden’s selective prosecution claim “a fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”

Attorneys representing Hunter Biden are seeking to have the charges dismissed in part by accusing Weiss, who was appointed U.S. Attorney by former President Donald Trump, of “[buckling] under political pressure” from congressional Republicans loyal to Trump.

“This claim borders on the absurd,” Weiss’ office wrote in a 57-page response on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said that the argument is “implausible” because Weiss was empowered to bring the charges by an attorney general who was appointed by President Joe Biden, the defendant’s father.

Hunter Biden’s “motion [to dismiss] is stunningly weak and wholly unsupported by facts and law,” Weiss’ office wrote.

Weiss’ office filed the gun-related charges in September, on the heels of his appointment as special counsel and nearly five years after investigators began probing Hunter Biden.

The conduct described in charging documents dates to October of 2018, when Hunter Biden procured a gun despite later acknowledging in his memoir, Beautiful Things, that he was addicted to drugs around that time. According to prosecutors, Biden obtained a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver and lied on a federal form about his drug use. Biden owned the firearm for 11 days and never fired it, his attorneys have said.

Prosecutors on Tuesday reiterated several core tenets of their indictment, which they said amounted to “overwhelming” evidence against Biden. They added that the FBI found trace amounts of cocaine on a brown leather pouch that held the firearm after it was recovered by police.

In his filing seeking to have the charges against Hunter Biden dismissed, his attorney Abbe Lowell offered a series of arguments, claiming that the special counsel was “unlawfully appointed” and therefore lacks the authority to bring charges; that the immunity stipulation in a section of the parties’ ill-fated plea deal remains in effect; and that the gun crimes in question may not be constitutional.

Hunter Biden’s legal team will have an opportunity to reply to the government’s brief by the end of the month.

The gun charges in Delaware reflect only a fraction of Hunter Biden’s growing legal liabilities. Last week, he pleaded not guilty to nine additional tax-related charges brought by Weiss’ office in California. Congressional Republicans have also threatened to issue a criminal referral to the Justice Department for his failure to comply with a subpoena for closed-door testimony.

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