The Nation - News from March 3, 1989

A flight attendant and a passenger of ill-fated United Airlines Flight 811 have filed lawsuits in Honolulu over the Feb. 24 disaster that killed nine passengers who were sucked out of a gaping hole in a jumbo jet. Flight attendant May Sapolu sued Boeing Co., the plane’s manufacturer, in state court and passenger Edwin Tudor of Australia filed suit against United Airlines in federal court. Tudor was sitting in row 27 and “could see the hole” but was not close to it, said his attorney, John Carroll. Tudor has complained of pulmonary, hearing and post-trauma disorders. Sapolu, the flight attendant, was smashed to the floor and hung onto the leg of a chair to keep from being swept out of the plane, said her lawyer, Rick Fried Jr.