Slightly big news: Boeing Whistleblower found dead, "self-inflicted" gunshot wound to the head

[thewayne]

Wow. Words absolutely fail me.

John Barnett had worked for Boeing for thirty years before retiring in 2017 for medical reasons. He was a senior quality control engineer on the 787 program. He became a whistleblower when he saw sub-standard parts being installed and later discovered a 25% failure rate in the passenger breathing mask system for the 787.

He was in Charleston as part of a long-running legal battle against Boeing. When he failed to appear as part of this on Saturday, they searched for him at his hotel and he was found dead in his truck in the parking lot.

Of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

I really, REALLY hope the FBI steps in on this one. It might have been a clean suicide, it might not have been. But there's too much going on with Boeing without there being a VERY serious investigation into this!

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68534703

Comments

[warriorsavant]

"Shot himself 17 times in the back."

I agree more likely he just couldn't take it anymore, but also agree needs serious investigation.

[thewayne]

That's my belief. Boeing's current problems, aside from their entire culture being screwed up, almost entirely revolve around the 737 Max line. This guy was old news over problems with the 787. Unless someone lower than the C-suite mistakenly thought it would help their higher-ups if they were to arrange for this guy to go away, I don't think there's any way a Boeing exec would allow this. The last thing that they need is more horrible PR.