The recent death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett has aroused suspicions surrounding the timing of his demise. The 62-year-old was found deceased in his truck on March 9 from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. That day, he was expected to be cross-examined by his legal team and Boeing, but never showed up. Barnett, a retired quality control manager, had raised concerns about Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.
Fueling the fire of skepticism around the whistleblower’s death, Barnett allegedly told his family that he was not suicidal and that if anything happened to him, it would not be by his own doing. According to ABC News 4, Jennifer, a “close family friend” of Barnett, explained that he told her not to believe any reports that he committed suicide if he were to be found dead. She said he told her “I ain’t scared … but if anything happens to me it’s not suicide.”
Jennifer described Barnett as a man who was happy to be alive and spend time with his family, failing to believe that he would be suicidal. In her opinion, the situation appeared as if someone wanted to silence Barnett from continuing to expose Boeing, implying his suicide was fabricated.
She added, “I know he did not commit suicide there’s no way. He loved life too much, he loved his family too much, he loved his brothers too much to put them through what they’re going through right now…I think somebody didn’t like what he had to say and wanted to shut him up and didn’t want it to come back on anyone so that’s why they made it look like a suicide.”
Barnett’s family claims that the former Boeing employee suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting from the “hostile work environment” created by the company. “He was suffering from PTSD and anxiety attacks as a result of being subjected to the hostile work environment at Boeing which we believe led to his death,” said some of Barnett’s relatives.
According to his family, Barnett thoroughly enjoyed working for Boeing up until 2010, when he was transferred to a Boeing 787 plant in Charleston, South Carolina. Reportedly, the company pressured employees to overlook defects in the assembly line.
“Things greatly changed for him when he learned that upper management was pressuring the quality inspectors and managers to cut corners and to not follow processes and procedures which they were required by law to follow,” the family said.
The American Tribune initially reported on the death of Barnett, just days after testifying against his former employee. Reports indicate that he retired from Boeing in 2017, where in 2019, he told the BBC that the company was rushing the production of the 787 Dreamliner jets, where he alleged emergency oxygen systems failed nearly a quarter of the time.
Barnett emphasized the magnitude to which planes produced in the Charleston plant were not up to safety standards. “I haven’t seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I’d put my name on saying it’s safe and airworthy,” he said. The whistleblower pointed out other issues he observed at the plant, such as planes being contaminated with clusters of metal shavings that were produced in fasteners and fitted into nuts and one instance where a senior manager pulled a dented hydraulic tube from a scrap bin, allowing it to be used on a Boeing 737.
Watch Barnett’s interview with TMZ from before his death here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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