Boeing whistleblower found dead in US
Boeing whistleblower found dead in US
Prior to his death, whistleblower John Barnett was testifying against Boeing over concerns about standards.
John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.
In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.
Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett's passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.
It said the 62-year-old had died from a "self-inflicted" wound on 9 March and police were investigating.
i can't find it online, but im reasonably certain i heard an interview with this guy on Canadian public radio several years ago that really shook me. he talked basically about how he wouldn't fly on a Boeing plane, knowing what he knows and having seen what he'd seen, stuff like quality rejected parts getting taken back into inventory to meet quotas. the takeaway for me was that the quality control system that had previously worked so well was an invention of equal or possibly higher importance to any kind of aerodynamic innovation present on those planes. i work in an analogous role (in a different industry) and i really do take it more seriously after having heard the interview. nobody likes the work of quality assurance and you'll never see someone doing a non-conformance report on TV but it's a necessary condition for planes to stay in the sky. RIP to a real one and if he got murdered then i hope the industry burns
Think hard on this. This is an aerospace tech company.
Now-
Remember that Trump, a piece of shit coward that’s staring down the barrel of multiple prison sentences and desperately needs to win an election that could be influenced by the outcome of a trial…..
has the names and addresses of all the jurors in said trial.
They should really make some sort of incentive to keep these people alive. Like if a whistle blower dies before the verdict of the trial/hearing make it an automatic assumption and multiply the punishment by 3 times (Treble!). Then you would have companies doing everything to not have whistle blowers die, not what we have today.
I'm not going to say that Boeing had this guy directly killed, but I can certainly see them and their legal team explicitly trying to make his life as hellish as possible until he felt that he only had one way out. Legal threats if you stop proceeding with your case, legals threats if you don't, they want a terrible warning for any other whistleblowers.
So, the guy was expected to appear in court for thw second round of questioning and when he didn't show up was found dead in his truck in the underground car park of the hotel. Doesn't sound like someone that wanted to end it. Maybe I'm wrong but I wouldn't book a room to go to court and then on a whim decide to end it.
They should investigate the coroner asap.
Weird, but I read this article and before it said specifically that he died from a gunshot wound. Looks like it's been updated (or redacted) to leave that bit out. Originally it said he died from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
So Boeing executives murdered a whistleblower. huh.
Being in Quality Control myself, I've always felt pressure from higher ups around some of our bigger findings. Cool to know if I ever find something too big they'll just straight up murder me.
If it's Boeing, I'm NOT going.
Last week, he gave a formal deposition in which he was questioned by Boeing's lawyers, before being cross-examined by his own counsel.
He had been due to undergo further questioning on Saturday. When he did not appear, enquiries were made at his hotel.
He was subsequently found dead in his truck in the hotel car park.
100% they killed him
Burn one for another dead hero, folks.
He is the reason some people wants the US to be a bit more like Russia. Yeah, no, this wasn't a suicide, this was to stop the case that he himself had embarked on a long-running legal action on and that he had been in Charleston for legal interviews for. This stops the case in its tracks.
“John was in the midst of a deposition in his whistleblower retaliation case, which finally was nearing the end,” Knowles and his co-counsel Robert Turkewitz said in a statement to TIME. “He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on. We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it.”
- https://time.com/6900123/boeing-whistleblower-john-barnett-found-dead-deposition-safety/
Please don't reply if you are just going to spam "BuT sUiCiDe". If that's false, he's just another casualty of Boeing. If that's true, he's just another casualty of Boeing.
Funny how he takes his own life in an hotel car park, and no one hears it. Let me guess, he also happened to buy the gun and get the gun permit the same day ... His anxiety never manifested as suicidal tendencies, and if anything, taking action had decreased it.
Seems legit.
Yesterday I've read a joke about something like that exactly about audits and proceedings connected to Boeing's recent accidents.
I thought this is satire first.
America is a truly sick society
The right thing to do would be to seize Boeing, take it away from its shareholders, hold and interrogate the major shareholders, and regardless of the outcome of interrogations the company should never return to the public. Either dismantle and sell every pathetic asset, or run it as a public company. This is a no-brainer, they should not be allowed to continue with business as usual even if no one is found guilty or no direct link is established.
he commited suicide in a russian fashion
Also found this article with more details but wtf is this website? I've never heard of it? Sketchy? Legit? I have no clue.
We should've all anticipated the word "self-inflicted" being redefined, once this happened to "safety", "bullying", "bigot", and "weaponize". "Self-inflicted" now means "His death was hastened along by those who weren't eager to see him around for much longer"
The timing is very convenient.... for Boeing.
"self-inflicted" wound
Did he shoot himself in the back of the head? Double tap for good measure?
Did he fly on a Boeing plane?
he suicided in russian style
How tall was the self inflicting wound fall? There aren't a lot of tall buildings near Everett.
Maybe it was 3 bullets to the back? He was probably an engineer. Engineers can figure out how to purposely shoot themselves in the back more than 1 time with the same or multiple guns. Some plywood, rope or string, glue gun, and miscellaneous items, that's all you need really...and a gun with bullets. Let's start a project "automated self immolation chair". I'm going to set-up a weekly meeting with you all until a prototype rev A is complete. We'll start this morning with a 4 hour DFMEA followed by a three hour brainstorming session. We'll need a business plan if we want approval for resources. I've just discussed the objective with my boss. She said no, and to take the trash out. And wash the dishes. It was an abrupt end of project but we learned valuable lessons. I'll have a report out before Friday 5pm. We'll be going out for drinks if you want to discuss details. Ah yes! Another successful project completion!
I don't know why Boeing would wait 6 or 7 years to kill him, right in the middle of his deposition, at the exact moment it would greatly intensify exposure of the story.
I hope people focus on the facts he was sharing-- that Boeing was taking safety shortcuts and ignoring clear risks to keep production deadlines--and what that means about possible risks to the millions of Americans that fly, not fall off into conspiracy land.
To the people saying Boeing killed him, sorta, but not really.
I've known people who have had tried to unionize in multiple industries and all of their health went to shit. Beyond the constant threat of a billion dollar organization breathing down your neck and threatening litigation for the remainder of your twilight years.
Think about how often the people around you have wanted to end their life, or hell even you yourself. Now couple that with all the above.
Just because people are noble doesn't mean they aren't anymore human that you or me.
Nobody went in and murdered Epstein. He had plenty of reason to do it himself as a known pedophile for the richest in a penal system that doesn't exactly look fondly on chomos.
Either way, needlessly speculating is fun. Just don't let yourselves fall into these dumbass conspiracies like every right-wing fascist chud has for the last decade or more. Reality is rarely as exciting as headlines, movies, or the internet likes it to be.