Controversies
Controversies tied to this brand in public sources. A listing is not a finding of fault.
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2025
Alaska Airlines pilot sues Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems for $10M over 2024 door plug blowout
Lawsuit filed
Captain Brandon Fisher, pilot in command of Alaska Airlines flight 1282, filed a complaint on Dec. 30, 2025 naming Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems Holdings as defendants, seeking $10 million in compensatory damages plus court costs. The complaint alleges Boeing attempted to shift blame onto the pilots and intentionally and falsely claimed the crew made mistakes, using Fisher as a scapegoat for the Jan. 5, 2024 mid-exit door plug blowout.
Source excerpt
The complaint, which names Boeing and its subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc., as defendants, notes Fisher is seeking compensatory damages in the amount of $10 million, in addition to court costs.
In the 2024 incident, a part of the aircraft's exit door plug blew out minutes after takeoff causing passengers belongings to be sucked out of the plane
A Dec. 30 complaint filed by captain Brandon Fisher says the aircraft manufacturer "attempted to shift blame" onto the pilots and "intentionally and falsely" claimed they made mistake
2024
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 door-plug incident
A door plug separated from a Boeing 737 MAX 9 operated by Alaska Airlines, causing an uncontrolled decompression. Spirit manufactured and initially assembled the relevant fuselage and door-plug structure, while Boeing performed final aircraft assembly. The incident intensified regulatory, customer, and public scrutiny of both companies’ manufacturing and inspection processes.
2023
Allegations of systemic quality-control failures
A federal class-action filing by a Spirit employee alleged that workers had warned about safety and quality problems, including defect undercounting, records issues, concealment of manufacturing failures, and retaliation against employees who raised concerns. The allegations became part of broader scrutiny of Spirit’s production controls.
2020
Spirit AeroSystems discloses accounting-process noncompliance
Issue disclosure
Spirit AeroSystems said an ongoing review found that it had not complied with established accounting processes for certain potential contingent liabilities received after the end of the third quarter of 2019. The company stated that no final conclusion had been made and that it believed the matter would not result in a third-quarter restatement or materially affect its fiscal-year 2019 financial statements.
Company response
Investigation — Spirit AeroSystems
In December 2019, Spirit received information through its established compliance processes that led Spirit to commence a review of its accounting process compliance.
Remediation — Spirit AeroSystems
Spirit is taking steps to strengthen procedures relating to contingent liabilities of this type to ensure they are processed correctly in the future.
Source excerpt
Spirit said Thursday that it started a review of its accounting process compliance in December and has since found that it didn’t comply with the accounting processes related to certain potential contingent liabilities that it received after the end of 2019’s third quarter.
Spirit said it doesn’t believe the non-compliance will result in a third-quarter financial restatement or materially impact its financial statements for fiscal year 2019. But the company said the review is ongoing and no final conclusion has been made.
As of today, Spirit believes this non-compliance will not result in a restatement of Spirit's financial statements for the third quarter ended September 26, 2019 or materially impact the financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. However, the review is ongoing and no final conclusion has been made.