Boeing Manager Who Raised Safety Questions Found Dead

The Boeing manager who raised safety questions about the plane manufacturer has been found dead.

John Barnett’s body was found outside a hotel in South Carolina, according to the Associated Press. The 62-year-old was found in a car that was parked outside a Holiday Inn.

The Charleston County Coroner’s Office said Barnett appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was pronounced dead on the scene. Local Charleston police detectives however are waiting for a formal determination of the cause of Barnett’s death.

“Any additional findings…might shed further light on the circumstances surrounding” the end of Barnett’s life, police said.

Barnett had been employed by Boeing as a quality control manager but retired in 2017. He later began to speak with journalists about his safety concerns, Associated Press reported.

“John was deeply concerned about the safety of the aircraft and flying public, and had identified some serious defects that he felt were not adequately addressed,” Barnett’s brother, Rodney, said in a family statement to The Associated Press Tuesday. “He said that Boeing had a culture of concealment and was putting profits over safety.”

Rodney Barnett added that work at Boeing served as a source of stress for his deceased brother and that John 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."

For its part, Boeing has issued a one-sentence statement about Barnett’s death. The airplane maker said: “We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

During an interview with The New York Times in 2019, Barnett shared his concerns about quality issues at Boeing.

More recently, Boeing has been under intense scrutiny from government regulators due to a door plug blowing off of an Alaska Airlines Boeing Max flight .

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