Former Boeing employee, and whistleblower, John Barnett died suddenly on March 9th from what is being called a “self-inflicted wound.” Having retired from the company back in 2017 after 32 years of service, he had retired due to health concerns, but his worries about missteps taken at Boeing putting lives at risk caused him to speak up in 2019. At the time of his death, he had been giving testimony about the history of Boeing.
According to the BBC in 2019, Barnett said that due to increasing pressure from upper management employees were installing poor-fitting parts onto pieces moving down the aircraft assembly line. While working there he discovered a crucial flaw that would render 25% of oxygen systems for emergencies inoperable when needed. Soon after relocating to their North Carolina plant to work on the 787 Dreamliner, he noticed the assembly was being rushed. As a result, quality control was suffering immensely.
While the company has largely refuted his claims, his position as a quality manager would have given him unfettered access to the production floor. From this perspective, he also saw a tremendous lack of parts accountability. This means defective parts were often misplaced, and subsequently may have been installed anyway. With multiple instances of failed parts being taken from the scrap bin so employees could make deadlines and keep moving, this meant deadlines were consistently hit at a huge cost.
Upon his retirement, Barnett had set out on a crusade to hold the company accountable. In his statements, he claimed that not only did Boeing allow this to happen, but they stonewalled his career progression for trying to maintain standards. Boeing vehemently denied these allegations and wanted to put them to rest.
Already having gone through their line of questioning as well as some from his lawyer, he was in Charleston, SC for further depositions. When he failed to show up the morning of the 9th, an inquiry for his whereabouts was launched. It was then that they learned that he had died in the parking lot outside of his hotel. Given just that information alone, it seems far less likely that this was a legitimate suicide and more of an Epstein case.
