- A Boeing whistleblower was found dead in his truck on Saturday.
- John Barnett, 62, worked for over three decades at Boeing, including as a quality manager at a 787 plant.
- Barnett was due to continue his deposition in a case against Boeing, his lawyer said.
A former Boeing manager who flagged concerns about the aircraft manufacturer’s quality standards was found dead in South Carolina on Saturday.
John Barnett, 62, was found dead in his truck at a hotel car park in Charleston, just days after he started giving a formal deposition in a legal action against Boeing, the BBC first reported.
The Charleston County coroner’s office said in a statement that Barnett had died from “what appears to be a self-inflicted” wound, per multiple news outlets such as The Hill.
Boeing told Business Insider in a statement: “We are saddened by Mr Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Police are investigating Barnett’s death. He worked for about 32 years at Boeing before retiring in 2017, and for a time, was a quality manager at a North Charleston manufacturing plant for the 787 Dreamliner.
At this post, Barnett said he observed worrying signs of slipping standards at Boeing, saying that the manufacturer was rushing to assemble its aircraft.
“I haven’t seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I’d put my name on saying it’s safe and airworthy,” Barnett told The New York Times in 2019.
That year, he told the BBC that a test in 2016 for 300 oxygen systems showed that a quarter of them failed to deploy. Barnett also alleged that he knew of at least one case at the plant where workers used parts from scrap bins to fit planes on the production line.
In January, Barnett told TMZ of cases where inspectors were given only two hours to find defects in a supplier’s products, significantly hampering their ability to conduct proper checks.
Boeing has denied Barnett’s allegations and said that while it found some defective oxygen systems, as Barnett reported, it removed them from production so they weren’t deployed on any aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration visited the Charleston facility and found that more than 50 “non-conforming” parts were missing, appearing to add credibility to Barnett’s claims of parts from scrap bins being used, per the BBC.
Barnett was due to continue deposition, lawyer says
Barnett had filed an AIR21 case against Boeing, saying it undermined his career because he had raised safety concerns at the Charleston plant. The AIR21 is a law protecting airline safety whistleblowers.
Barnett’s lawyer, Brian Knowles, said the former Boeing manager was supposed to report for the third day of his deposition on Friday, per the Corporate Crime Reporter.
He was questioned by Boeing’s lawyers on Thursday and then cross-examined by Knowles on Friday, but didn’t show up or respond to calls on Saturday, Knowles said.
Barnett’s lawyers asked his hotel to check on the whistleblower, and he was found dead in his vehicle, Knowles told the Corporate Crime Reporter. The BBC reported the same details surrounding Barnett’s death.
Knowles did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
Boeing has, in recent months, come under scrutiny over safety concerns in its 737 Max planes after an Alaska Airlines flight in January had a door plug blown out of its fuselage while in the air.
The New York Times reported on Monday, citing a set of presentation slides, that Boeing had recently failed 33 out of 89 FAA product audits for its 737 Max production.
On Monday, at least 50 passengers were injured when a Boeing 787 Dreamliner run by Latam Airlines dropped suddenly due to a technical issue. The 787 is the aircraft that Barnett worked on at the North Charleston facility.
