The former Boeing employee's death came during a break in testimony in a whistleblower lawsuit, where workers were allegedly pressured to install substandard aircraft parts on an assembly line.



The case of the murder of a former Boeing employee raised many questions, especially since he was looking into a sensitive issue related to aircraft spare parts, coinciding with a series of accidents that occurred around the world.

John Barnett, a former Boeing employee, was found dead in his car in a hotel parking lot on suspicion of suicide. He was known for his criticism of the company's production standards in the United States.

Just days after testifying in a lawsuit filed against aircraft manufacturing and assembly company Boeing, Barnett, 62, was found dead in his truck outside a South Carolina hotel last Saturday.

Last week, a former quality manager at Boeing's North Charleston plant testified after claiming they were using second-rate parts. He retired from the company seven years ago after 32 years of work.

In turn, the police issued a death announcement yesterday, Monday, saying that “he was in Charleston to attend the lawsuit,” and he died of his wounds on suspicion of suicide.

Police in Charleston County said Barnett died "from his injuries," adding that they were still investigating the incident.

Barnett's death came during a break in testimony in a whistleblower lawsuit, where workers were allegedly pressured to install substandard aircraft parts on an assembly line.

Barnett also mentioned that in some cases, second-rate parts are sourced from scrap bins before being installed in aircraft being built in order to avoid delays.

A 2017 FAA review upheld some of his concerns, requiring Boeing to take action, and his lawyer, Brian Knowles, said he had just submitted a statement to Boeing's lawyers about the case last week.

Barnett's job of 32 years was to oversee production standards for the company's aircraft, standards that he said were not met during the four years he spent at the then-new factory in Charleston from 2010 to 2014.

“The new leadership didn’t understand operations,” Barnett told Corporate Crime Reporter in a 2019 interview about how the brass cut corners to get their cutting-edge 7878 aircraft out on time.

Killed after a series of accidents?

The murder of the former employee, or his suicide, will raise new questions, as the American company Boeing finds itself forced to explain the nature of the recurrence of multiple accidents on its planes.

The story began after the 737 Max plane was grounded for 20 months around the world after two fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

Aviation accidents involving this American company have continued for more than a decade, raising questions about the reasons in light of the competition from European Airbus aircraft and others?

The Boeing 737 is a type of medium-sized aircraft produced by the American company Boeing, and it was officially announced in 1964.

It is the best-selling plane in the world, with more than 5,000 of them sold. Inside the plane, there are 3 seats in each row on both sides, in addition to being the preferred plane for low-cost airlines.

Despite this, the market for these aircraft began to decline, as Boeing announced early last year that it had received orders to purchase 808 new aircraft, and delivered 480 aircraft in total in 2022, but it still lags behind the numbers of the European competitor, Airbus.

Malfunction in the presidential plane!
The matter reached the point where there was an emergency technical malfunction in the presidential plane, forcing it to make an emergency landing.

It is noteworthy that Boeing said that it supports the decision that requires immediate inspections of 737-9 aircraft that have “the same structure as the affected aircraft,” and the directive issued by the Federal Aviation Administration covers 171 aircraft.

A few days ago, a passenger on a commercial flight from San Francisco to Boston witnessed an unusual scene when he looked out the window and saw the plane's wing disintegrating in the air.
The passenger said that he was a little worried after take-off when he felt the plane shaking. He opened the window curtain and saw part of the plane's wing "disintegrating" in the air.

The pilot calmly announced that he would divert the flight to Denver to change the plane, where the plane landed safely, according to United Airlines.

Also, a video clip documented the moment a tire fell on an American Boeing 777 passenger plane at San Francisco International Airport seconds after take-off.
American media reported last week that a United Airlines plane, heading from San Francisco to Japan, lost a tire upon take-off.

Video link on Twitter

Al-Mayadeen