Boeing Whistleblower Death Deemed Suicide

Well-known Boeing critic and whistleblower John Barnett was found shot to death Saturday in Charleston, South Carolina. According to the BBC, the local coroner's office said the gunshot wound that killed him was "self inflicted" and that police are investigating. Barnett's body was found in his truck in a hotel parking lot. He had completed two days of depositions concerning a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against Boeing. He was found after he failed to show up for his third day of testimony. Boeing told BBC it was saddened by Barnett's death.

Barnett spent seven of his 32 years at Boeing as quality control manager at Boeing's 787 plant in Charleston. According to Corporate Crime Reporter, he filed whistleblower complaints in 2019 alleging that upper management was ordering plant workers to install non-conforming parts in aircraft without documenting the flaws, saying they "just wanted to get the planes pushed out the door and make the cash register ring.” The FAA halted production of 787s from January 2021 to August 2022 due to improper shimming of the gaps between fuselage parts. There have been other manufacturing flaws flagged by the FAA on the 787.

Barnett gave numerous interviews from 2019 to 2022 in which he claimed Boeing had adopted a corner-cutting philosophy and that he would not fly on a 787. He most recently chimed in on the loss of a fuselage panel on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 on Jan. 5 near Portland, saying the plane was rushed back into service and that he was not surprised the 737 also had manufacturing issues. “Once you understand what’s happening inside of Boeing, you’ll see why we’re seeing these kinds of issues,” Barnett told ABC News in Australia in late January.