A Boeing whistleblower was found dead in his truck in the parking lot of his South Carolina hotel after he failed to show up for the second part of his testimony for a bombshell lawsuit against the company, a report said Monday.
John Barnett, 62, had raised safety concerns at the airline’s factories and provided his first testimony just days before he was found dead from an apparent “self-inflicted” gunshot wound, the Charleston County coroner told the BBC.
Barnett’s attorney, Brian Knowles, told TMZ that he had explicit doubt about the circumstances of his death, and called the self-inflicted gunshot “alleged.”
“Today is a tragic day,” Knowles told Corporate Crime Reporter. “John had been back and forth for quite some time getting prepared. The defense examined him for their allowed seven hours under the rules on Thursday.”
The whistleblower had been staying at the hotel to provide a deposition in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.
His lawyer said he and his co-counsel had been calling Barnett’s phone on Saturday, but the call went to voicemail.
“We then asked the hotel to check on him,” he said. “They found him in his truck dead from an ‘alleged’ self-inflicted gunshot. We drove to the hotel and spoke with the police and the coroner.”
An email to Knowles was not immediately returned Monday night.
Barnett had worked for Boeing for over three decades before retiring in 2017.
He worked as a quality control engineer. In 2019, Barnett told the BBC that Boeing had compromised safety by rushing to get its 787 Dreamliner jets off the production line.
Boeing released a statement on Barnett’s death.
“We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends,” the statement read.
The company has been under heightened scrutiny in recent months due to a myriad of issues on their planes, including in January when a door plug blew off during an Alaska Airline flight.
