A close friend of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett said he predicted he might end up dead before he was found shot last week.
The 62-year-old was found in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina, – seven years after he retired following a 32-year career with Boeing.
Barnett’s death came during a whistleblower suit, where he alleged under-pressure workers were deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the assembly line.
Close family friend Jennifer has now told WPDE that Barnett had warned her of such a thing happening to him.
She told the outlet: ‘I said, ‘Aren’t you scared?’ And he said, ‘No, I ain’t scared, but if anything happens to me, it’s not suicide.’
The 62-year-old was found in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina, – seven years after he retired following a 32-year career with Boeing
Close family friend Jennifer, seen here, has now told WPDE that Barnett had warned her of such a thing happening to him
Jennifer continued: ‘I know that he did not commit suicide. There’s no way. He loved life too much.
‘He loved his family too much. He loved his brothers too much to put them through what they’re going through right now.’
Jennifer believes someone ‘didn’t like what he had to say’ and wanted to ‘shut him up’.
She added: ‘That’s why they made it look like a suicide. I don’t care what they say, I know that Mitch didn’t do that.’
Barnett had alleged that second-rate parts were literally removed from scrap bins, before being fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays.
A 2017 review by the FAA upheld some of his concerns, requiring Boeing to take action.
He had just given a deposition to Boeing’s lawyers for the case this past week, his attorney Brian Knowles said.
The Charleston County coroner, meanwhile, confirmed Monday the longtime Boeing staffer died Friday, while in town for interviews linked to the case.
Barnett had alleged that second-rate parts were literally removed from scrap bins, before being fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays
Boeing’s assembly plant in North Charleston – where the deceased worked for decades – is seen here
Boeing also responded to the former worker’s death in their own statement as news spread, saying it was ‘saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing.’
The statement did not address any aspects of the case, but ultimately added: ‘Our thoughts are with his family and friends.’
Staff at the Holiday Inn where Barnett was found dead revealed said he seemed fine in the evening before his ‘suicide’.
Barnett ate a quesadilla, drank a Coke, scrolled on his phone, and seemed fine on the evening of March 8, the unnamed hotel employee told the New York Post.
His lawyer previously questioned the coroner’s office findings that the gunshot wound was ‘self-inflicted,’ saying Barnett was in good spirits in between his depositions.
A police report obtained by DailyMail.com reveals that Barnett extended his stay at the Holiday Inn two days prior to his suspected suicide and had been set to check out the day before the alarm was raised.
The report details that a friend of Barnett’s contacted the hotel asking for a welfare check at 10am on March 9, with employees knocking on his hotel room door with no response.
A member of staff then searched for his orange Dodge Ram in the parking lot of the hotel, and discovered Barnett deceased in the driver’s seat with a ‘silver handgun’ in his right hand.
Barnett had his ‘right pointer finger remaining on the trigger’, and suffered a ‘gunshot wound near his right temple, according to the Charleston Police Department.
The report added that there was a ‘white piece of paper that closely resembled a note’, lying in plain view on the passenger seat. The contents of the note have not yet been revealed.
The plant where Barnett worked for decades is where Boeing builds the 787 Dreamliner, one of several crafts from the airliner that’s made headlines as of late.
On Monday, roughly 50 people were treated by first responders after a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flying from Australia to New Zealand experienced a ‘technical event’ that caused ‘a strong movement’ jolting passengers in their seats.
The company told airlines on Friday to start inspecting switches on pilots’ seats after a report said an accidental cockpit seat movement caused the plunge.
In a separate incident in early January, an unused emergency exit door blew off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max shortly after take-off from Portland International, sparking a still-ongoing DOJ investigation.
On Friday, shortly before the incident over the Indian Ocean, Boeing said it believed the technical failure involving the door stemmed from something that occurred during production, where required documents detailed the removal of a key part that failed were never created.
On Monday, roughly 50 people were treated by first responders after a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flying from Australia to New Zealand experienced a ‘technical event’ that caused ‘a strong movement’ jolting passengers in their seats
Meanwhile, in a separate incident in early January, an unused emergency exit door blew off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max shortly after take-off from Portland International, sparking a still-ongoing DOJ investigation
Also on Friday, the company said it is ‘committed to continuing to cooperate fully and transparently with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation,’ which, more than three months later, remains ongoing.
Barnett’s job for 32 years was overseeing production standards for the firm’s planes – standards he said were not met during his four years at the then-new plant in Charleston from 2010 to 2014.
‘The new leadership didn’t understand processes,’ Barnett told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview in 2019 of how brass allegedly cut corners to get their then state-of-the-art 7878s out on time.
‘They brought them in from other areas of the company,’ he continued, two years after retiring in 20017.
‘The new leadership team – from my director down – they all came from St. Louis, Missouri. They said they were all buddies there.’
‘That entire team came down,’ he went on. ‘They were from the military side. My impression was their mindset was – we are going to do it the way we want to do it. Their motto at the time was – we are in Charleston and we can do anything we want.’
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun speaks with reports at the Capitol in January after MAX 9 planes were grounded follwing the door incident. The company is now under criminal investigation
‘They started pressuring us to not document defects, to work outside the procedures, to allow defective material to be installed without being corrected.
‘They started bypassing procedures and not maintaining configurement control of airplanes, not maintaining control of non conforming parts – they just wanted to get the planes pushed out the door and make the cash register ring.
Barnett claimed he alerted superiors at the plant about his misgivings, but no action was ever taken. Boeing denied this, as well as his claims.
A 2017 review by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) went on to stand up some of Barnett’s qualms, including finding that at least 53 ‘non-conforming’ parts – as they put it – were misplaced, and considered lost.
The firm is now under criminal investigation for the door incident on the Max plane this past January
