A former Boeing employee known for raising concerns about the company’s manufacturing standards has been found dead in the US.
John Barnett worked for Boeing for more than 30 years before retiring in 2017. In the days before his death, he was testifying in a whistleblowing case against the company.
Boeing said it was ‘saddened’ by the news of Barnett’s death. The Charleston County coroner confirmed Barnett’s death in a statement to the BBC on Monday.
The coroner said Barnett, 62, died of a ‘self-inflicted wound’ on 9 March and police are investigating.
Barnett worked for the US aircraft giant for more than 30 years, until he retired for health reasons in 2017.
Since 2010, Barnett had worked as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant, which produces the 787 Dreamliner, a state-of-the-art passenger jet used primarily on long-haul flights.
In 2019, Barnett told the BBC that workers under pressure were deliberately fitting substandard parts to planes on the production line.
He also argued that there were serious problems with oxygen systems, which could mean that one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency.
Barnett said that soon after he started working in South Carolina, he became concerned that the rush to build the new planes meant that the assembly process was being rushed and safety was being compromised.
He later told the BBC that workers were not following procedures for tracking parts around the factory, leading to the loss of defective parts.
He even suggested that in some cases defective parts had been taken from scrap bins and fitted to aircraft under construction to avoid delays on the production line.
He also claimed that tests of emergency oxygen systems to be installed on the 787 showed a failure rate of 25%, meaning that one in four planes could not be switched on in a real emergency.
Boeing denied Barnett’s claims. But a 2017 review by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), confirmed some of Barnett’s concerns.
At least 53 ‘nonconforming’ parts were found to be unaccounted for and missing from the factory, and Boeing was ordered to take corrective action.
Barnett was due to be questioned again on Saturday. When he failed to appear, an investigation was launched at his hotel. He was later found dead in his van in the hotel car park. Speaking to the BBC, his lawyer described his death as ‘tragic’.
