By Bill Chappell
Updated Tuesday, March 12, 2024 • 2:28 PM EDT
Police in Charleston, S.C., are investigating the death of John
Barnett, a former Boeing quality control manager who became a
whistleblower when he went public with his concerns about serious
safety issues in the company's commercial airplanes.
Barnett's body was found in a vehicle in a Holiday Inn parking lot in
Charleston on Saturday, police said. One day earlier, he testified
about the string of problems he says he identified at Boeing's plant
where he once helped inspect the 787 aircraft before delivery to
customers.
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Police said officers were sent to the hotel to conduct a welfare check
after people were unable to contact Barnett, who had traveled to
Charleston to testify in his lawsuit against Boeing.
"Upon their arrival, officers discovered a male inside a vehicle
suffering from a gunshot wound to the head," police said in a statement
sent to NPR. "He was pronounced deceased at the scene."
The office of Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O'Neal said that
Barnett, who had been living in Louisiana after retiring from Boeing,
died "from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound."
Charleston police said detectives are actively investigating the case
and are awaiting a formal cause of death as they try to determine the
circumstances surrounding Barnett's death.
Barnett, who spent decades working for Boeing at its plants in Everett,
Wash., and North Charleston, S.C., had repeatedly alleged that Boeing's
manufacturing practices had declined — and that rather than improve
them, he added, managers had pressured workers not to document
potential defects and problems.
"We are saddened by Mr. Barnett's passing, and our thoughts are with
his family and friends," Boeing said in a statement sent to NPR.
Barnett, 62, made international headlines in April of 2019 when he and
other former Boeing employees [2]spoke to The New York Times about what
he called shoddy manufacturing problems at Boeing. Barnett accused the
company of adopting a culture that prioritized raw numbers and profits
over quality — and by extension, passenger safety.
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Related Story: [3]FAA audit faults Boeing for 'multiple instances' of
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"As a quality manager at Boeing, you're the last line of defense before
a defect makes it out to the flying public," Barnett told the
newspaper. "And I haven't seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I'd
put my name on saying it's safe and airworthy."
By the time the article appeared, Barnett had already filed a
whistleblower complaint against Boeing, saying that his attempts to
raise quality and safety problems had been ignored and that he was
punished for continuing to flag them.
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Related Story: [4]The FAA gives Boeing 90 days to fix quality control
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Barnett filed a whistleblower complaint against Boeing in early 2017;
his case against the company was heading toward a trial this June, his
family said.
"He was looking forward to having his day in court and hoped that it
would force Boeing to change its culture," the family said in a
statement shared with NPR by his brother, Rodney Barnett.
The family says Barnett's health declined because of the stresses of
taking a stand against his longtime employer.
"He was suffering from PTSD and anxiety attacks as a result of being
subjected to the hostile work environment at Boeing," they said, "which
we believe led to his death."
When John Barnett was interviewed by Ralph Nader [5]in 2019, he said
health issues had persisted after he retired from the plane-maker.
"It's taken a serious mental and emotional toll on me," Barnett said —
but, he added, the safety of the airplanes rolling off the production
line remained his main focus.
"That's what my story is about, is telling my story enough to where the
right people get involved to make sure that these airplanes are made
correctly," Barnett said. "Because the 787 carries 288 passengers plus
crew. So the last thing I want to do is wake up in the morning and see
a 787 has gone down" because of one of the problems he identified.
"I mean, it's just, it keeps me up at night," he said.
References
1.
https://text.npr.org/1237204488
2.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/20/business/boeing-dreamliner-production-problems.html
3.
https://text.npr.org/1235826355
4.
https://text.npr.org/1234509115
5.
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/p/boeing-787-dreamliner-hundreds-of-fdf#details
