In a wild twist in a case already mired in controversy, attorney Jake Bissell-Linsk found himself in the midst of an incredible coincidence. Bissell-Linsk is an attorney from New York, involved in a class-action lawsuit against aerospace company Boeing. As mentioned by his firm, his litigation, In re The Boeing Company Securities Litigation, is seeking justice on behalf of the Employees Retirement System of the State of Rhode Island.
As detailed by the firm, the complaint alleges that two Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes were involved in fatal crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 due to design flaws in the flight control software. This resulted in the grounding of all 737 MAX planes from March 2019 to December 2020. The lawsuit also highlights a 2024 incident where a “door plug” flew out of a 737 MAX 9, leading to grounding of many of these planes. The Defendants are accused of prioritizing profits over safety, which allegedly led to poor quality control and heightened risk of manufacturing flaws.
The twist in the tale, however, lies in an unrelated incident. A Boeing passenger jet lost its emergency slide after take off from JFK airport; a few days later, it washed ashore directly in front of Bissell-Linsk’s oceanfront home in Belle Harbor, New York, as recounted in an interview with the New York Post.
Bissell-Linsk found the deflated yellow slide, large enough to warrant examination but tangled in the rocks and floating in the surf. He did not touch the item, awaiting the proper authorities for its retrieval. Delta airlines later retrieved the slide. However, despite the striking coincidence, Bissell-Linsk has not confirmed if the slide is relevant to his ongoing case against Boeing.
No matter the direct relevance to the case, such an odd coincidence is sure to keep this already high-profile lawsuit in the public eye. The universe, it seems, has a plaintiff’s sense of humor.