A former Boeing employee known for raising concerns about the firm’s production standards and was dubbed as the Boeing whistleblower has been found dead in the US.
John Barnett had worked for Boeing for more than 30 years before retiring in 2017.
In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company and their negligence of general safety.
Boeing’s response
Boeings’ official statements had said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett’s passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the press on Monday. It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating his death.
There are speculations such as the death was planned by the company for leaking company secrets as a revenge.
Mr Barnett had worked for the US plane giant for more than 30 years, until his retirement in 2017 on health grounds.
From 2010, he worked as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant making the 787 Dreamliner, a state-of-the-art airliner used mainly on long-haul routes by many airlines.
Why is Mr Barnett deemed as Boeing’s top whistleblower?
In 2019, Mr Barnett told that under-pressure workers 
had been deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the production line, this was the first of the whistle blowing regarding Boeing’s planes and quality.
He also said he had uncovered serious problems with oxygen systems that were implemented in the aircraft, which could mean one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency, which is not up to international standards for safety for aircraft.
He said soon after starting work in South Carolina, he had become concerned that the push to get new aircraft built meant the assembly process was rushed and safety was compromised, something the company denied. Although, the recent line of events with the B787 Max was supporting Barrett’s claim.
He later told the public that workers had failed to follow procedures intended to track components through the factory, allowing defective components to go missing.
According to gim, in some cases, sub-standard parts had even been removed from scrap bins and fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays on the production line, to support the company’s image of on time deliveries.
He also claimed that tests on emergency oxygen systems due to be fitted to the 787 showed a failure rate of 25%, meaning that one in four could fail to deploy in a real-life emergency, which was very concerning especially for flights like the transatlantic or pacific routes and long haul flights.
Mr Barnett said he had alerted managers to his concerns, but no action had been taken regarding the safety of the aircraft.
Company’s response to his revealations
The company denied his assertions. However, a 2017 review by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), did uphold some of Mr Barnett’s concerns supporting his claims.
It established that the location of at least 53 “non-conforming” parts in the factory was unknown, and that they were considered lost. The company was ordered to take remedial action.
On the oxygen cylinders issue, the company said that in 2017 it had “identified some oxygen bottles received from the supplier that were not deploying properly”. But it denied that any of them were actually fitted on aircraft, contradicting his statements.
Barnett’s death amid legal struggles
After retiring, he embarked on a long-running legal action against the company regarding this.
He accused it of denigrating his character and hampering his career because of the issues he pointed out, charges rejected by the aircraft manufacturer.
At the time of his death, Mr Barnett had been in Charleston for legal interviews linked to that case. Last week, he gave a formal deposition in which he was questioned by company’s lawyers, before being cross-examined by his own counsel regarding the statements made by him.
He had been due to undergo further questioning on the concerned Saturday. When he did not appear for, enquiries were made at his hotel.
He was subsequently found dead in his truck in the hotel car park.
In a statement, Boeing said: “We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.” to seem not involved in his death as few allege.
His death comes at a time when production standards at both Boeing and its key supplier Spirit Aerosystems are under intense scrutiny mainly because of the Alaska Airlines flight B737 MCAS system failure.
This follows an incident in early January when an unused emergency exit door blew off a brand-new B737 Max shortly after take-off from Portland International Airport.
A preliminary report from the US National Transportation Safety Board suggested that four key bolts used in the aircrafts, designed to hold the door securely in place, were not fitted properly.
Last week, the FAA said a six-week audit of the company had found “multiple instances where the company allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements”.
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