Safety inspector’s death remains suspicious

Two weeks ago, I wrote about John Barnett, 62, the Louisiana resident who “committed suicide” hours before completing a legal deposition testifying against his former employer, Boeing. Before boarding the plane for court in Charleston, South Carolina, Barnett told friends and family, “If you hear I committed suicide, I didn’t.”

Since I mentioned Barnett, readers have asked to hear more.

John Barnett, a Boeing quality engineer who worked there for three decades, alerted aviation authorities in 2017 of potentially “catastrophic” safety failings at the aircraft manufacturing giant.

On March 9, after his attorney called his hotel for a wellness check, Holiday Inn staff found Barnett dead in his truck in the parking lot. He had a gun in his hand, police said, and a suicide note nearby.

Following his death, Barnett’s family told reporters the Pineville resident tried to highlight severe concerns and fought “a culture of concealment” within a company that valued “profits over safety.”

Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal declared Barnett dead “from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

According to his attorneys, Barnett testified twice in a 3-day deposition in his federal legal action against Boeing.

“He was in good spirits and looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on,” attorneys Brian Knowles and Robert Turkewitz said in a joint statement two weeks ago. “We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it.”

Barnett’s legal team urged local police to keep investigating despite the coroner’s initial ruling.

“We are all devastated,” the attorneys said. “We need more information about what happened to John. The Charleston police need to investigate this fully and accurately and tell the public what they find out. No detail can be left unturned.”

However, Charleston police spokesperson Sgt. Anthony Gibson told reporters the police department had “not received any indication from the coroner’s office that foul play is suspected in this case.”

In a later statement, he said of the coroner’s preliminary findings, detectives “are actively investigating this case and are awaiting the formal cause of death, along with any additional findings that might shed further light on the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Barnett.”

Barnett worked decades at Boeing’s 787 plant in Charleston.

In 2017, he reported a senior plant manager for installing a scrapped, dented hydraulic tube in a plane. He filed a complaint with human resources, listing additional defective parts that had gone missing, fearing those had also been installed.

Boeing, according to Barnett’s deposition, took no action.

To prevent production delays, Barnett said workers did not follow procedures to track components, allowing the loss of parts and later installation of defective parts.

In 2017, Barnett’s team found that 25% of the oxygen systems for the 787 would fail to send oxygen through the cylinders to passengers in the case of an emergency. Barnett said he alerted the FAA after insiders stonewalled his report to management. When the follow-up FAA investigation determined that at least 53 “non-conforming” parts were missing and ordered Boeing to take remedial action, Barnett said, Boeing forced him to retire.

Barnett described these incidents in the 2022 Netflix documentary Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. In the film, he said, “Boeing quit listening to their employees. So whenever I’d raise my hand to say we’ve got a problem here, they would attack the messenger and ignore the message.”

Barnett issued new warnings about Boeing’s work culture and vehicle safety earlier this year after a door flew off Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.

In a news release following Barnett’s death, his former employer said only, ​​“We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.” Amid the ongoing image and safety crisis, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced he will be stepping down at the end of 2024.

Barnett’s family told CBS News they plan to carry on John Barnett’s whistleblower case when the trial resumes in September. Attorney Brian Knowles said the family continues the case for “justice and accountability.”

John Barnett’s Louisiana family called him “Mitch,” but his friends and co-workers in South Carolina called him “Swampy.”

His death is still under investigation.