The family of a former Boeing employee who committed suicide last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company.
The plaintiffs allege that John Barnett, who exposed the company’s faulty safety practices, was subjected to “harassment, abuse and intimidation,” according to ABC News.
Barnett, a former Boeing quality manager, died March 9, 2024, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a vehicle parked at a Holiday Inn in Charleston. His death was ruled a suicide by the Charleston County Coroner's office.
At the time of his death, Barnett was actively engaged in a whistleblower complaint against the company.
The plaintiffs contend that Boeing wanted to “discourage, discredit, and humiliate him until he would either give up or be discredited” because of his decision to blow the whistle on the company.
The lawsuit outlines the toll this alleged harassment took on him, leading to his eventual death, according to The Seattle Times.
The 146-page civil complaint describes Barnett as a conscientious employee determined to keep air travel safe even if it meant challenging Boeing managers, who the lawsuit claims routinely batted down Barnett’s complaints. Over time, the grueling and often frustrating process of whistleblowing sapped Barnett emotionally, which his family’s lawyers contend set him on the path to suicide.
“The weight of years of Boeing’s harassment, abuse and humiliation became too much for John to bear,” the complaint states. It cites Barnett’s medical provider who diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, panic attacks and anxiety stemming from a hostile work environment at Boeing.
Lawyers representing Barnett’s family in the new civil suit also represented him on whistleblower complaints to federal agencies that accused Boeing of risking safety to advance production, then retaliating against him for it. Charleston-based attorneys Robert Turkewitz and Brian Knowles blamed Boeing for Barnett’s death in a May 2024 news release.
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The complaint alleges that “Whether or not Boeing intended to drive John to his death or merely destroy his ability to function, (Barnett’s death) was absolutely foreseeable … Boeing’s conduct was the clear cause, and the clear foreseeable cause, of John’s death.”
John Barnett, a former Boeing quality manager, blew the whistle on safety issues, including defective parts and malfunctioning oxygen systems in the 787 Dreamliner. He faced retaliation from Boeing, leading to his early retirement. Despite some of his claims being validated by… pic.twitter.com/TWAKAfLH6w
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) May 18, 2024
Barnett spent 32 years at Boeing. Seven of those years were spent as a quality control engineer, which is where he noticed severe flaws in the company’s practices. He alleged that workers were pressured to install faulty parts on planes, including defective oxygen systems that had a 25 percent failure rate.
He also stated that the company’s management discouraged documenting defects, which allegedly led to inaccurate records and violated FAA regulations.
Barnett later reported these problems internally. However, the company took no action to investigate his claims. He filed a whistleblower complaint with OSHA in 2017, alleging that the company retaliated against him for bringing up the myriad of problems he discovered.
The whistleblower in 2019 went public with his concerns, discussing the matter with various media outlets including The New York Times and BBC. He was also featured in the 2022 Netflix documentary “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.”
The company fell under scrutiny after a series of mishaps with its planes malfunctioning.
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