Yes. Airlines are almost always sued in crashes involving common air carriers, even when the cause of the crash is due to improper design or improper manufacture by the airplane manufacturer and had nothing to do with pilot error or improper maintenance. Some prime examples are the crash of TWA flight 800, which literally blew up inflight due to a fuel-air-temperature mixture causing spontaneous combustion in the center fuel tank, very much like a corn silo explosion. Another example is USAir flight 427 where the cause of the crash and two other crashes was an un-commanded rudder reversal caused by an improperly designed rudder servo valve. A more recent example is Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, where a control system rendered the airplane un-controllable. The airline was sued by the passengers in all of those cases even though the airline itself was not at fault for the crash.