Boeing whistleblower found dead in US; had flagged serious concerns about company's safety standards

John Barnett was like any other employee of The Boeing Company, having worked for the American multinational corporation for 32 years and retiring in 2017. Save for the fact that Barnett had repeatedly raised concerns about the aircraft manufacturing giant's production standards.

Found dead in his truck in the hotel car park, in the days before his death, Barnett had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company, BBC reported. The Charleston County Coroner confirmed his death and said that the 62-year-old had died from a "self inflicted" wound on March 9, and the police are investigating. Last week Barnett had given a formal deposition in which he was questioned by Boeing's lawyers.

What The Boeing Company says?

In a statement issued on the matter, Boeing said, "It was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett's passing. Our thoughts are with his family and friends." Barnett had worked for the company for 32 years before retiring in 2017 on grounds of health. He had also accused the company of denigrating his character and harming his career prospects because of the safety concerns he had raised.

Some serious concerns raised by Barnett

From 2010, Barnett worked as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant, in charge of the famous and state-of-the-art 787 Dreamliner, reserved mainly for long haul routes. In 2019, the BBC quoted Barnett as saying that, "under pressure, workers had been deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the production line."

That is not it. He also flagged several other concerns, putting a serious question mark on the company's production and safety standards. Barnett also said that he had uncovered serious issues with oxygen systems, as a result of which about 25% of the breathing masks would not work in an emergency.

He also said that deadline pressures and the demand for new aircrafts meant the assembly process was rushed without giving due regard to safety and also compromising the quality of the aircraft. Boeing denied all the allegations made by Barnett.

Rushed assembly and compromised quality are not the only allegations made by Barnett. He also told the BBC that in some cases, sub-standard parts had been removed from scrap bins and fitted to planes under construction to avoid delays on the production line. In other cases, the workers had also overlooked procedures intended to track components through the factory, because of which defective components went missing. Barnett said he had alerted the management about his concerns, but no action was taken.

What has the Federal Aviation Administration said?

In 2017, a review by the US regulator FAA did find basis in some of the concerns raised by Barnett. Concurring that the location of at least 53 non conforming parts in the factory was unknown, Boeing was ordered to take remedial action on the same.

Boeing emergency door blew off

Barnett's concerns once again hit the headlines when, in early January, a brand-new Boeing 737 Max' emergency exit door blew off shortly after take-off from Portland International Airport. The incident has resulted in a federal investigation, and last week itself, a Boeing top official said that the company cannot find documents about the "door plug blow off incident."