Bonin denies John Barnett’s allegations (documents)
John Barnett, a former Boeing employee who had flagged safety issues at the plane-making giant, was found dead on Saturday.
The Charleston County, South Carolina, coroner confirmed Barnett’s death to the BBC on Monday.
Who is John Barnett?
John Barnett worked for American aerospace giant Boeing for more than three decades until his retirement. The 62-year-old retired in 2017 due to health reasons. After retiring, Barnett began a long legal campaign against the company.
In the days leading up to his death, Barnett had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company. He has worked as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant since 2010, where he produces the 787 Dreamliner. It must be noted that the 787 Dreamliner is a state-of-the-art passenger aircraft primarily used on long-haul routes.
what john barnett revealed
Back in 2019, Barnett revealed in an interview with the BBC that a series of production workers at a Boeing factory deliberately installed defective parts into aircraft.
He discovered some serious problems with the oxygen system, which could even mean a quarter of the respirators don’t work in an emergency.
Barnett reportedly claimed that passengers on the 787 Dreamliner could suffer from hypoxia when the cabin is suddenly depressurized.
Barnett said of some of the testing that a quarter of the oxygen systems may have malfunctioned and may not work when needed.
After testing the emergency oxygen system, Barnett found that the 787 Dreamliner had a failure rate of 25 percent.
To build a new plane, the assembly process in South Carolina was rushed and safety was compromised, he said.
Not only that, but workers failed to keep track of parts within the factory, resulting in defective parts being lost.
He even accused the company of using substandard parts from scrap bins and installing them into aircraft to prevent production line delays.
Although he informed managers of his concerns, no action was taken. However, a 2017 review by U.S. regulator the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did confirm some of Barnett’s concerns.
How Boeing responded to the accusations
Boeing denies Barnett’s allegations and says all of its planes are built to the highest levels of safety and quality. The company insists that “safety, quality and integrity are at the core of Boeing’s values.”
