Mr. Barnett left Boeing in 2017 for health reasons.
John Barnett, a former Boeing employee who questioned the planemaker’s production standards, has been found dead in Charleston, South Carolina. Barnett, 62, died of a “self-inflicted” gunshot wound on March 9. Barnett was in Charleston undergoing legal interviews and was scheduled to undergo additional questioning. He was found dead after failing to show up. He left Boeing in 2017 due to health reasons after a career that spanned more than 30 years.
Barnett’s family now blames his death on a “hostile work environment” at the company, The Wall Street Journal reported. new york post. “He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety due to the harsh working environment at Boeing, which we believe contributed to his death,” they said.
The 62-year-old’s family said he enjoyed his job at the jetliner giant until 2010, when he was transferred to the 787 plant in Charleston. “His situation changed dramatically when he learned that upper management was pressuring quality inspectors and managers to cut corners and not follow the processes and procedures they were legally required to follow,” the family said.
They allege that Boeing pressured employees to ignore defects in an effort to prevent assembly lines from slowing down, and that those who resisted were “labeled troublemakers, retaliated against, and subjected to a hostile work environment.”
Mr Barnett told his family it was a battle for him to get management to do the right thing. The family continued, “He had deep concerns about the safety of the aircraft and the flying public and identified a number of serious deficiencies that he believed had not been adequately addressed. He said Boeing had a culture of concealment and put profits over safety.” They added.
The statement said: “The job he once loved became so stressful that Barnet’s doctors began to worry about his health. This caused him so much stress that his doctors told him that if he stayed, he would Gonna have a heart attack.”
“We are saddened by the passing of Mr. Barnett and our thoughts are with his family and friends,” Boeing said in a statement. It did not address the points raised in his family’s statement.
Mr Barnett recently gave evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the US plane maker, which has suffered a series of safety issues in recent years, including the crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019, which resulted in More than 10 people died. 350 people.
In 2019, John told British Broadcasting Corporation It said “workers under pressure” deliberately installed “substandard parts” on Boeing planes on the production line.
Mr Barnett claimed he had discovered serious problems with the oxygen system which could mean a quarter of the respirators would not work in an emergency. He also told the BBC that workers failed to follow the factory’s procedures for tracking parts, resulting in defective parts being lost. He said he informed administrators of the concerns but they took no action.
