John Barnett, a whistleblower who had been involved in a lawsuit against Boeing, was found dead on March 9 in South Carolina, according to local officials.
The 62-year-old was found dead “from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the Charleston County Coroner’s office told The Epoch Times in a statement.
The coroner didn’t release additional details surrounding Mr. Barnett’s death, and the Charleston City Police Department is investigating.
Mr. Barnett, who had worked for more than 30 years at Boeing before retiring in 2017, had become a vocal critic of the company’s safety and production quality practices. At the time of his death, he was a key witness in a whistleblower lawsuit against Boeing, in which he claimed that the aircraft maker had retaliated against him for repeatedly reporting defects.
His body was discovered in a vehicle on the day he was scheduled to appear in court.
“We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends,” Boeing said in a statement shared with The Epoch Times. The aircraft maker didn’t comment on Mr. Barnett’s allegations.
In a recent live-streamed interview on TMZ, Mr. Barnett, who carried out safety checks and oversaw aircraft production, raised concerns about quality control issues, specifically within the 737 and 787 aircraft programs. He claimed that the removal of inspection operations from jobs had led to defects and safety issues.
Mr. Barnett pointed to a recent high-profile incident involving a door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight, asserting that it might not have been an isolated occurrence.
“This is not a 737 problem; it’s a Boeing problem,” he said.
The midair blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 on Jan. 5 forced an emergency landing and sparked intense scrutiny of Boeing by federal regulators. The panel covering an unused door came off during the flight because the four bolts that were supposed to be holding it in place were missing, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The incident led the Federal Aviation Administration to ground all 737 Max 9s, order “enhanced inspections” on the planes, and open an investigation to see if the company failed to ensure proper production safety standards.
Boeing stated in January that it was cooperating fully with the probe.
However, Mr. Barnett said his concerns were greater than the door plug blowout, expanding to the overall condition of Boeing airplanes because of the elimination of inspection operations. He alleged that Boeing had removed these operations, leaving mechanics to handle their own work, resulting in incomplete and improperly inspected jobs.
The whistleblower recounted an experience in 2012 when he claimed to have identified roughly 300 defects at a supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, only to discover later that inspectors sent after him were given limited time and were lauded for finding fewer issues. That raised questions about the integrity of Boeing’s quality control procedures, according to Mr. Barnett.
