Boeing whistleblower who raised safety concerns found dead

John Barnett says he raised concerns about the manufacturing process to Boeing bosses – they took no action (Picture: Netflix)

A former Boeing employee who blew the lid off the plane manufacturer’s alleged safety problems has been found dead.

John Barnett, 62, died on Saturday from a ‘self-inflicted wound’, a South California coroner said yesterday.

In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company in Charleston.

Charleston County Coroner told Al Jazeera: ‘Charleston City Police Department is the investigating agency. No further details are available at this time.’

Barnett had worked at Boeing for 32 years – including as a quality manager at a North Charleston Plant – before he retired in 2017.

Just two years later, he would tell the BBC, which was the first to break the news of his death, that overworked staff deliberately fitted planes with faulty parts.

Boeing’s safety policies have come under renewed scrutiny after a jet door flew off (Picture: AP)

This meant one in four passengers aboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner would have been left without oxygen in the event of sudden decompression.

Barnett filed a whistleblower claim against the company alleging bosses retaliated against him for reporting the alleged defects.

Boeing denied the claims, though a federal investigation found 50 ‘non-conforming parts’ had been lost in the company’s system.

But two crashes involving the Boeing 737 MAX in 2018 and 2019 which saw 350 people killed brought renewed scepticism to the aviation giant’s safety standards.

This would not be the only time. On Monday, dozens of passengers suffered injuries when a Boeing aircraft heading to New Zealand suffered a ‘technical event’, causing it to ‘freeze mid-air’.

In March, a Boeing 737 was forced to make an emergency landing in Houston, Texas, not long after takeoff when its engine caught alight.

A Boeing 737 Max 8 had to be evacuated after ending up lop-sided on the grass in Texas (Picture: AP)

An audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), spurred after a cabin door panel blew out of an Alaska Airlines-operated fight in January, examined both Alaskan airline’s and Boeing’s safety track records.

The panel ‘found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements’, the agency said last week.

‘The FAA identified non-compliance issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control,’ it added.

The January incident occurred on a Boeing 737 MAX about 16,000 feet in the air, raising questions not only about Boeing but also the supplier Spirit, which makes the fuselage, or body, of the 737 Max.

A prelminary National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that four bolts meant to secure the panel, known as a door plug, had been removed from the jet at Boeing’s Renton, Washington, factory.

On Saturday, the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into Boeing, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Barnett’s allegations were not related to the 737 Max model involved in the door-plug episode nor the Renton factory.

Boeing expressed condolence at the news of Barnett’s death.

‘We are saddened by Mr Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends,’ the company said.

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