Boeing whistleblower John Barnett found dead from ‘self-inflicted’ wound

A former Boeing worker who raised safety concerns about the company’s planes has been found dead from a “self-inflicted wound”.

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett speaking to TMZ in January. Picture: TMZ

A former Boeing worker who raised safety concerns about the company’s planes has been found dead from a “self-inflicted wound”.

Former quality manager John Barnett, 62, retired from Boeing in 2017 after 32 years and made headlines for saying he had begged his family not to fly on its planes.

He had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the US aerospace giant in the days before his death in South Carolina, the BBC first reported.

Mr Barnett, from Louisiana, was found dead on March 9 “from what appears to be a self-inflicted wound”, the Charleston County coroner’s office confirmed in a statement.

“Charleston City Police Department is the investigating agency,” it said. “No further details are available at this time.”

The BBC reported Mr Barnett was found in his truck in the carpark of his Charleston hotel.

“We are saddened by Mr Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends,” a Boeing spokesman told news.com.au.

John Barnett speaking to TMZ in January. Picture: TMZ

Mr Barnett worked from 2010 as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant making its state-of-the-art 787 Dreamliner, which is now used by most major airlines including Qantas.

He first blew the whistle in 2019, alleging Boeing had cut corners in its rush to get the new aircraft off the production line. He claimed faulty parts were deliberately fitted to planes, and that around one quarter of the drop-down oxygen masks did not work.

His public statements came in the wake of two fatal crashes of Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 planes in 2018 and 2019 that killed more than 350 people.

Boeing denied his accusations at the time and insisted its aircraft were built to the highest standards of safety and quality.

But in 2017 a review by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) upheld some of his concerns, including that the location of at least 53 “nonconforming” parts in the factory was unknown.

The FAA ordered Boeing to fix the problems.

Boeing said in a statement in 2020 that the concerns raised by Mr Barnett had been addressed and that planes go through rigorous safety tests before they leave the factory.

“In 2017, Boeing’s normal 787 production testing process identified some oxygen bottles received from the supplier that were not deploying properly,” the statement said.

“We removed those bottles from production so that no defective bottles were placed on aeroplanes, and we addressed the matter with the supplier through our normal FAA-approved process. We encourage and expect our employees to raise concerns and when they do, we thoroughly investigate and fully resolve them, in co-operation with the FAA, where appropriate.”

Boeing is ‘saddened by Mr Barnett’s passing’. Picture: Roslan Rahman/AFP

After his retirement for health reasons, Mr Barnett took legal action against Boeing, accusing the company of retaliating against him for speaking out, a claim Boeing denied.

He had been in Charleston for legal interviews in that case at the time of his death, the BBC reported. He gave a formal deposition last week where he was questioned by Boeing’s lawyers and cross-examined by his own counsel.

He had been due for further questioning on Saturday but did not appear. Enquiries were made at his hotel, where he was found dead in his truck.

Mr Barnett’s lawyer told the BBC his death was “tragic”.

John Barnett discussed Boeing's safety standards in a recent interview with TMZ.

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It comes amid a spate of high-profile safety incidents involving Boeing aircraft.

On Monday, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner en route from Sydney to Auckland experienced an unspecified “technical problem” that caused the plane to plunge suddenly, sending passengers flying into the ceiling and injuring 50 people.

Boeing is still reeling from a near-catastrophic incident in January when a fuselage panel on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines jet blew off mid-flight.

Mr Barnett spoke with TMZ in the wake of that incident after the FAA gave the 737s the green-light to return to the skies.

“One, this is not a 737 problem, it’s a Boeing problem,” he said.

Boeing was accused of cutting corners. Picture: Charly Triballeau/AFP

“I know the FAA’s going in and they’ve done due diligence and inspections to assure that the door-plugs of the 737 are installed properly … but my concern is what’s the condition of the rest of the aeroplane?”

Mr Barnett claimed that in 2012, Boeing started removing inspection operations from assembly lines leaving “mechanics to buy off their own work”.

“So what we’re seeing with the door plug blowout is what I’ve seen with the rest of the aeroplane as far as jobs not being completed properly, inspection steps being removed, issues being ignored,” he said.

“My concerns are with the 737 and 787, because those programs have really embraced the theory that quality is overhead and non-value-added, so those two programs have really put a strong effort into removing quality from the process.”

US regulators earlier this month gave Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan addressing quality control issues, with the FAA chief saying the company must “commit to real and profound improvements”.

Last week a Boeing 777 jetliner bound for Japan had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from San Francisco when a wheel fell off and plunged into an airport parking lot, damaging several cars.

Also last week New Zealand’s Prime Minister was forced to take a commercial flight to Australia for high-level meetings because of a last-minute problem with a New Zealand Defence Force Boeing 757 aircraft.

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