Boeing Whistleblower Found Dead
Exploring some of the Boeing case and the "Suicide" of the Whistleblower.
According to Global News, the sixty-two-year-old whistleblower John Barnett was found dead after testifying in court against aircraft manufacturer Boeing. Mr. Barnett had worked for three decades for Boeing at one of their manufacturing plants as a safety engineer. He had retired from the company on health grounds, according to the BBC.
He was supposed to be in for testimony the following day when he was a no-show in court. When they couldn’t reach him by phone, they went to look for him at his accommodations (welfare check by police). That was when they found him dead in his vehicle from a gun shot wound to the head, according to an article from abc4news.com. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sergeant Anthony Gibson with the Charleston Police Department had said,
"Given the sensitive nature of the investigation, we are unable to participate in media interviews at this time. This stance is not unique to this case but is a standard procedure we adhere to in order to preserve the integrity of active investigations."
The article from abc4 is somewhat hard to understand, after that quote, it also states that police had also mentioned a note and a gun near his right hand? I include it here for completeness, but I doubt this because of the quote given by Sergeant Gibson. It doesn’t make sense, if they’re not participating in media interviews, they won’t give out information like that unless they overheard it, if they did so, they should state it plainly.
In the same article, they had also gotten a quote from Mr. Barnett’s attorneys:
"John was a brave, honest man of the highest integrity. He cared dearly about his family, his friends, the Boeing company, his Boeing co-workers, and the pilots and people who flew on Boeing aircraft," the statement reads. "We have rarely met someone with a more sincere and forthright character.
"In the course of his job as a quality manager at Boeing South Carolina, John learned of and exposed very serious safety problems with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and was retaliated against and subjected to a hostile work environment, which is the subject of his pending AIR-21 case."
"John was in the midst of a deposition in his whistleblower retaliation case, which finally was nearing the end. He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on. We didn't see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it.
"We are all devasted. 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."
Mr. Barnett wasn’t suicidal. Plus, from what it seems like things were going Mr. Barnett’s way legally, as well (read further). According to another New York Post article, his family said in the first remarks since his death that,
“He was suffering from PTSD and anxiety attacks as a result of being subjected to the hostile work environment at Boeing which we believe led to his death,”
In a different article, Mr. Barnett’s lawyers are asking for a probe into what everyone’s calling a suicide. With the lawsuit and the timing of said suicide, things do seem rather more than just coincidental.
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