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BREAKING: Boeing Whistleblower Found Dead In Truck, Recently Gave Deposition In Lawsuit

A former Boeing employee known for scrutinizing the company’s production standards was found dead in Charleston, South Carolina.

John Barnett, 62, was found dead in his truck at a hotel on March 9th from an alleged “self-inflicted” gunshot wound.

The former Boeing quality manager recently gave a deposition in a whistleblower lawsuit.

“According to the BBC, John Barnett, a former Boeing employee known for raising concerns about the firm’s production standards, has been found dead in Charleston County, South Carolina. Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years until his retirement in 2017,” Rawsalerts wrote.

“In the days before his death, he had been providing evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company. The 62-year-old died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 9, and police are investigating the incident.”

After giving a formal deposition last week, Barnett was supposed to undergo further questioning on Saturday.

However, he did not appear, and a search began at his hotel.

“We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends,” Boeing said in a statement.

“From 2010, he worked as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant making the 787 Dreamliner, a state-of-the-art airliner used mainly on long-haul routes,” BBC wrote.

After his retirement, Barnett raised concerns the company was rushing the assembly process and safety was compromised.

The company denied his claims.

Collin Rugg shared a recent interview Barnett had with TMZ.

Rugg writes:

62-year-old Boeing whistleblower John Barnett found dead in his truck after he didn’t show up for a legal interview linked to a case against Boeing.

Barnett worked for Boeing for 32 years and retired in 2017. After retiring, Barnett spoke out about how Boeing was cutting corners on their airplanes.

Just days before his death, Barnett gave evidence in a lawsuit against Boeing.

Barnett accused Boeing of “deliberately fitting sub-standard parts” on their aircraft.

He also accused Boeing of having faulty oxygen systems, saying one in four breathing masks would *not* work in an emergency situation.

Barnett said new plane builds were rushed. When he brought his concerns forward, they were allegedly ignored by the company.

When he died, Barnett was in Charleston for interviews linked to a case against Boeing.

He was supposed to come back for more questioning on Saturday but did not show up. Inquiries were made to his hotel where Barnett was found dead in his car in the parking lot.

Police are investigating Barnett’s death but say he died from a “self-inflicted” wound.

The video below was a recent interview Barnett had with TMZ.

WATCH:

From BBC:

In 2019, Mr Barnett told the BBC that under-pressure workers had been deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the production line.

He also said he had uncovered serious problems with oxygen systems, which could mean one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency.

He said soon after starting work in South Carolina he had become concerned that the push to get new aircraft built meant the assembly process was rushed and safety was compromised, something the company denied.

He later told the BBC that workers had failed to follow procedures intended to track components through the factory, allowing defective components to go missing.

He said in some cases, sub-standard parts had even been removed from scrap bins and fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays on the production line.

He also claimed that tests on emergency oxygen systems due to be fitted to the 787 showed a failure rate of 25%, meaning that one in four could fail to deploy in a real-life emergency.

Mr Barnett said he had alerted managers to his concerns, but no action had been taken.

Boeing denied his assertions. However, a 2017 review by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), did uphold some of Mr Barnett’s concerns.

According to Corporate Crime Reporter, Brian Knowles, Barnett’s lawyer, said Barnett “was supposed to do day three of his deposition here in Charleston on his AIR21 case.”

The outlet noted that “AIR21 refers to a federal law that provides whistleblower protection for employees in the aviation industry.”

“Today is a tragic day,” Knowles wrote in an email to Corporate Crime Reporter.

“John had been back and forth for quite some time getting prepared. The defense examined him for their allowed seven hours under the rules on Thursday. I cross examined him all day yesterday (Friday) and did not finish. We agreed to continue this morning at 10 a.m. (co-counsel) Rob (Turkewitz) kept calling this morning and his (Barnett’s) phone would go to voicemail. We then asked the hotel to check on him. They found him in his truck dead from an ‘alleged’ self-inflicted gunshot. We drove to the hotel and spoke with the police and the coroner,” Knowles added.

Per Corporate Crime Reporter:

“The new leadership didn’t understand processes,” Barnett told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview in 2019. (See — John Barnett on Why He Won’t Fly on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, (Corporate Crime Reporter, November 29, 2019). “They brought them in from other areas of the company. The new leadership team – from my director down – they all came from St. Louis, Missouri. They said they were all buddies there.”

“That entire team came down. They were from the military side. My impression was their mindset was – we are going to do it the way we want to do it. Their motto at the time was – we are in Charleston and we can do anything we want.”

“They started pressuring us to not document defects, to work outside the procedures, to allow defective material to be installed without being corrected. They started bypassing procedures and not maintaining configurement control of airplanes, not maintaining control of non conforming parts – they just wanted to get the planes pushed out the door and make the cash register ring.”

Barnett had been speaking to reporters recently about Boeing production issues, including the incident involving the mid-air blow out of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5, causing decompression of the airplane.

Barnett spoke with ABC News in Australia in January:

“Once you understand what’s happening inside of Boeing, you’ll see why we’re seeing these kinds of issues,” former Boeing worker John Barnett told the ABC from his home in Louisiana.

For three decades, Mr Barnett proudly worked on the Boeing factory floor, overseeing aircraft production and carrying out safety checks until he retired in 2017. He’s now deeply disillusioned with the company he once loved.

While the 737 MAX line has been the focus of scrutiny after two deadly crashes five years ago and the recent incident involving Alaska Airlines, Mr Barnett says the problem runs deeper than the troubled MAX due to what he alleged were lax quality and safety standards and shoddy work in the production line.

“This is a Boeing issue, this is not a 737 issue,” the former quality manager said.

“Their culture is all about speed and production and getting aeroplanes out the door. And any issues, any concerns that you bring up are going to slow them down.”

Mr Barnett said he reported several safety issues to his superiors at the company, including defective parts going missing and allegedly being installed on aircraft without first being repaired.

When these reports met a dead end he took his concerns to the regulator, the FAA, who investigated and substantiated Mr Barnett’s complaint that Boeing had lost track of hundreds of faulty parts which could not be found.

Boeing, and its key supplier Spirit Aerosystems, have come under extreme scrutiny for production standards following a string of emergency-related events.


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