John Barnett, a 62-year-old longtime Boeing employee became a whistleblower after he went public with safety concerns he said he uncovered at the North Charleston plant. Suspiciously, Barnett was found dead in his truck around 10:20 a.m. Saturday, just one day after sitting for a deposition with the company’s lawyers. He had a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Barnett was supposed to answer more questions, but he failed to show up; Charleston police said in a statement they made the grim discovery when they responded to the Holiday Inn on Savannah Highway. Attorneys for the whistleblower say he showed no indications he would take his own life and say he was in good spirits.
“We are all devastated,” his attorneys, Robert Turkewitz and Brian Knowles, told Fox News Digital. “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.”
Barnett’s attorneys say he was definitely planning to complete his deposition and move on with his life after his decades-long Boeing career ended in a retaliation lawsuit after he uncovered and went public with safety problems in the 787 Dreamliner, according to Fox News.
“He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on,” the attorneys said. “We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it.”
Fox News explains of his warnings about Boeing:
Barnett worked for Boeing for over three decades before retiring in 2017 as a quality control engineer. In 2019, Barnett told the BBC that Boeing would rush to get its 787 Dreamliner jets off the production line, compromising safety.
He alleged the emergency oxygen systems on the jets had a failure rate of 25%. This meant that a quarter of 787 Dreamliners had the potential to rapidly lose oxygen if the cabins were suddenly decompressed, suffocating passengers.
The coroner’s office told Fox News Digital that he died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The official coroner’s report was not yet available. City police said they were investigating the circumstances of his death.
