For years, the whistleblower informed the public about blatant deficiencies at aircraft manufacturer Boeing. Now he has been found dead – his mission has become his undoing.
Boeing whistleblower John Barnett.
Screenshot ABC
It was the last day of a man who harshly criticized Boeing because he cared so much about the company. A heavy rainstorm raged over Charleston in the American state of South Carolina last Saturday morning. John Barnett was scheduled to be cross-examined and testify under oath this morning for the third day in a row by lawyers, Boeing’s and his own.
The 62-year-old former manager in Boeing quality control had repeatedly appeared in the media since 2019. With always the same message and unbelievable-sounding reports that were supposed to prove the blatant quality and safety deficiencies in Boeing production. Especially where Barnett worked, in the newly opened plant in Charleston in 2010, in the production of the 787 Dreamliner.
Boeing rejected this for a long time, the American aviation authority FAA repeatedly initiated investigations and repeatedly found evidence that Barnett was right and issued corresponding orders for the aircraft manufacturer. The big trial Barnett vs. Boeing was supposed to start in June, in which Barnett sued his former company, also because of the way he felt he was bullied out of his job because of the criticism he initially only expressed internally. He had to leave Boeing in 2017.
When he failed to appear for questioning Saturday morning, his attorney, Robert M. Turkewitz, called the Holiday Inn Hotel on Savannah Highway where Barnett was staying. The quality manager had worked and lived in Charlotte for seven years, but had now returned to Pineville in his home state of Louisiana.
The Boeing whistleblower John Barnett on the US television station ABC.
“I don’t know if he was a target for anyone.”
Hotel employees found Barnett dead in his pickup truck in the hotel parking lot, with a handgun and a handwritten note on his person. The police said everything pointed to suicide. His fight for transparency and educating the public about outrageous conditions at the aircraft manufacturer had apparently taken its final toll. His lawyer said: “I don’t know if he was a target for anyone. But I’m sure there were people who were angry with him as a whistleblower.”
Barnett’s mother, Vicky Stokes, told the New York Times that her son suffered greatly from the dispute with Boeing. This was reflected in his appearance; he now looked older than his three brothers, even though he was the youngest. “He carried this burden on his shoulders for so many years,” she said.
Barnett’s great passion, who was nicknamed Swampy because of his origins in swampy Louisiana, was car racing on mud tracks. His niece Katelyn Gillespie told the Seattle Times. She described him as “the most selfless person you could imagine.” Both privately and in his fight against Boeing. “He didn’t pursue the company for the money, but to save lives.”
Television images from ABC show John Barnett at his kitchen table in Louisiana in 2019, with framed certificates and awards from his long career at Boeing in front of him. A certificate from September 2014 praised him for his 30 years of “valuable service to the Boeing Company” and thanked him for being an “integral part” “in building our future as a global company.” Signed by then CEO Jim McNerney.
Production of the Boeing 737 MAX: “Over the years the quality has continually declined, this is not a 737 problem, this is a Boeing problem,” said John Barnett at the beginning of 2024.
Lindsey Wasson / Reuters
He never got on a plane again
Barnett spoke with a comfortable southern accent and seemed calm. But what he said into the camera or dictated to reporters was powerful, again and again, for years. The entire Boeing 787 manufacturing process, which was always plagued by delivery delays, was rushed and at the expense of safety; defective parts disappeared and were later installed in aircraft despite defects.
In fact, the production quality of the 787 coming from Charleston was considered so poor for a long time that major Boeing customers such as Qatar Airways had contractual assurances that they would only receive 787s manufactured in Seattle. The later relocation of all 787 production to Charleston also occurred for financial reasons.
The Boeing bosses, guided by shareholder value as their most important priority, were lured by the state of South Carolina with generous tax breaks. After his departure in 2017, John Barnett accused his former employer of denigrating his personality and hindering his career because of his internal criticism, which Boeing always denied.
“As a quality manager at Boeing, you are the last bastion before a defect outside reaches the passengers,” Barnett explained in the “New York Times” in 2019. “I have yet to see an airplane from Charleston that I would attest to with my name is safe and airworthy.” At the beginning of 2024, he also commented on the problems at Boeing that became apparent after the incident with a Boeing 737 MAX 9 – which is exactly what he had warned about for a long time.
“Over the years the quality has continually declined, this is not a 737 problem, this is a Boeing problem.” The manufacturer must find its way back to the core of the clean craft of aircraft assembly. In January, Barnett told the newspaper that he would no longer board a plane because of his experiences at Boeing.
“This is sad and breaks my heart. I love Boeing, I love what Boeing used to stand for.” His lawyer has announced that the trial against Boeing planned for June will still be conducted on behalf of John Barnett’s estate.