Boeing whistleblower who raised quality concerns is found dead

A prominent Boeing whistleblower, a former quality manager who raised concerns about manufacturing practices at the company’s 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina, was found dead Saturday of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, local officials said.

The whistleblower, John Barnett, was in Charleston for a deposition for a lawsuit in which he accused Boeing of retaliating against him for filing quality and safety complaints.

Quality issues in both design and manufacturing have plagued Boeing for years — most prominently after the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019, and again since a fuselage panel from a Max flight shortly after takeoff two months ago exploded.

Mr. Barnett filed the complaint against Boeing in 2017 with the U.S. Department of Labor under the AIR21 Whistleblower Protection Program, which protects aircraft manufacturer employees who report information related to airline safety violations. He left the company that year.

Boeing’s lawyer deposed Mr. Barnett on Thursday, and he was questioned by his own lawyers for half the day on Friday. They were scheduled to complete the deposition Saturday morning, said Robert Turkewitz, Mr. Barnett’s lawyer in the case.

When Mr. Barnett, 62, did not show up or answer phone calls Saturday morning, Mr. Turkewitz said he became concerned and called Mr. Barnett’s hotel. Mr. Barnett was subsequently found dead in his pickup truck in the hotel parking lot.

The Charleston County coroner’s office confirmed the death, which it said “appeared to be the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

Charleston police noted the coroner’s findings in a statement and said they were conducting an investigation. “Detectives are actively investigating this case and are awaiting the formal cause of death, along with any additional findings that may shed further light on the circumstances surrounding Mr. Barnett’s death,” the department said.

Mr. Turkewitz said Mr. Barnett’s experience at Boeing had deeply affected him.

“It really weighed on him, what was going on, and reliving all these things that had happened and the stress it had caused,” Mr Turkewitz said.

An administrative law judge from the Labor Department heard the whistleblower case, which was still under investigation. A trial was scheduled for June.

Mr Turkewitz said he planned to pursue Mr Barnett’s case on behalf of Mr Barnett’s family. “What John wanted, if anything, was for it to make a difference,” he said.

In a statement, Boeing said: “We are saddened by the passing of Mr. Barnett, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Mr. Barnett, known as Swampy because of his Louisiana roots, worked at Boeing for nearly three decades until retiring in 2017. He had worked at Boeing’s plant in Everett, Washington, before moving to a new factory in North Charleston, SC. 2010 to work on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a widebody jet that was the company’s most important new aircraft in a generation.

After two Boeing 737 Max planes crashed in 2018 and 2019, Mr. Barnett’s concerns about quality problems at Boeing were featured prominently in The New York Times and other news media, as examples of widespread problems with the company’s production.

Mr Barnett told The Times in 2019 that he had discovered clusters of titanium particles hanging over the flight control wires in some planes. These strips were created when fasteners were inserted into nuts.

Mr. Barnett said in interviews that he had repeatedly urged his bosses to remove the strips, but they had refused and moved him to another part of the factory.

The Federal Aviation Administration in 2017 required Dreamliners to be stripped of chips before being delivered to airlines. Boeing said at the time that it met that directive and was working with a supplier to improve the nut’s design. But the company said the issue did not pose a flight safety concern.

Mr Barnett also told The Times in 2019 that he had reported to management that defective parts had gone missing, raising the possibility that they had been installed on aircraft.

He said his bosses told him to complete paperwork for the missing parts without finding out where they went.

The FAA investigated and discovered that Boeing had lost some damaged parts.

“As a quality manager at Boeing, you are the last line of defense before a defect becomes known to the flying public,” Mr. Barnett told The Times in 2019. “And I haven’t seen a plane from Charleston yet. that I would put my name on it and say it is safe and airworthy.”

Mr. Barnett, who lives in Pineville, La. lived, shared his concerns again this year in interviews with The Times when questions about quality problems at Boeing resurfaced following a Jan. 5 incident in which a panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max. 9 plane in the sky during an Alaska Airlines flight.

“Over the years, Boeing has continually looked at quality,” Mr. Barnett said, adding, “This is not a 737 problem. It’s a Boeing problem.”

Boeing needs to “go back to basics,” he said. “They have to go back to Airplane Building 101.”

Mr. Barnett’s mother, Vicky Stokes, said in an interview on Tuesday that her son’s experience with Boeing had taken a heavy toll, leaving him looking older than his three brothers even though he was the youngest. “He carried this on his shoulders for years,” she said.

In an interview in January, Mr. Barnett said he stopped flying planes because of what he saw during his time at Boeing.

“I’m not going to step foot on a plane today,” he said. “It’s sad. It breaks my heart. I love Boeing. I love what it used to stand for.”

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