Junhong v. The Boeing Co.

Dist. Ct. erred in remanding to state court due to lack of federal jurisdiction, instant cases by plaintiffs-airline passengers, who alleged that airplane’s autothrottle, autopilot, and low-airspeed-warning systems contributed to pilot error that caused airline crash when landing at airport, where said cases had been removed to federal court under 28 USC sections 1333 and 1442. While Dist. Ct. correctly found that instant cases were not removable under federal official’s right to have claims resolved in federal court provisions in section 1442(a)(1), Dist. Ct. erred in finding that said cases were not removable under admiralty jurisdiction provisions of section 1333, since: (1) accidents occurring to airplanes can potentially come within admiralty jurisdiction provisions of section 1333 if injuries to plaintiffs were caused by events occurring while airplane is over water; (2) instant flight from Seoul, Korea to San Francisco crossed Pacific Ocean; and (3) finding of NTSB indicated that any malfunction in instant airplane’s systems could have occurred while airplane was still flying over Pacific Ocean before it crashed on landing.