Boeing Sued Over Bad Air on Planes SEATTLE, WA (KPLU) -
A flight attendant who says her debilitating illness was caused by inhaling toxic fumes on a plane is suing Boeing and its subsidiary McDonnell Douglas.

Terry Williams was working the first class cabin on American Airlines

Flight 843 on April 11, 2007, when she saw a haze of smoke coming out of the sidewall ventilation.

Almost immediately she developed a sore throat, cough and headache. Over the following weeks and months her condition deteriorated. Doctors pinpointed the problem as exposure to toxics and tied it to the incident on the plane. She says she can no longer work. She suffers from chronic pain and memory loss.

The lawsuit against Boeing contends some of the company's planes, including the MD-82 that Williams was on, allow highly toxic fumes to bleed into the cabin.

The suit contends that "fume events" happen on a regular basis so the case might set a precedent for others. Boeing isn't responding to specifics of the suit except to say it believes that air inside cabins is safe. © Copyright 2009, KPLU