A prominent Boeing whistle-blower, a former quality manager who raised concerns about manufacturing practices at the company’s 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina, was found dead on Saturday with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to local officials.
The whistle-blower, John Barnett, was in Charleston for a deposition for a lawsuit in which he accused Boeing of retaliating against him for making complaints about quality and safety.
Quality problems involving both design and manufacturing have plagued Boeing for years — most prominently after the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019, and again since a fuselage panel blew out on a Max flight shortly after takeoff two months ago.
Mr. Barnett filed the complaint against Boeing with the U.S. Labor Department in 2017 under the AIR21 Whistleblower Protection Program, which protects employees of plane manufacturers who report information pertaining to air carrier safety violations. He left the company that year.
Boeing’s lawyer deposed Mr. Barnett on Thursday and he was questioned by his own lawyers for half the day Friday. They were scheduled to complete the deposition on Saturday morning, said Robert Turkewitz, Mr. Barnett’s lawyer in the case.
When Mr. Barnett, 62, did not show up on Saturday morning and did not answer phone calls, Mr. Turkewitz said he grew concerned and called Mr. Barnett’s hotel. Mr. Barnett was then found dead in his pickup truck in the hotel parking lot.
The Charleston County Coroner’s office confirmed the death, which it said appeared to be “a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
The Charleston Police Department noted the coroner’s finding in a statement and said it was conducting an investigation. “Detectives are actively investigating this case and are awaiting the formal cause of death, along with any additional findings that might shed further light on the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Barnett,” the department said.
Mr. Turkewitz said Mr. Barnett’s experience at Boeing had deeply affected him.
“It was really weighing on him, what was going on, and reliving all these things that had happened and the stress it had caused,” Mr. Turkewitz said.
An administrative law judge with the Labor Department was hearing the whistle-blower case, which was in discovery. A trial had been set for June.
Mr. Turkewitz said he planned to proceed with Mr. Barnett’s case, on behalf of Mr. Barnett’s family. “What John wanted was at least for it to make a difference,” he said.
In a statement, Boeing said, “We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Known as Swampy because of his Louisiana roots, Mr. Barnett worked at Boeing for nearly three decades until he retired in 2017. He had worked at Boeing’s factory in Everett, Wash., before moving to a new factory in North Charleston, S.C., in 2010 to work on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a wide-body jet that was the company’s most important new plane in a generation.
After two of Boeing’s 737 Max planes crashed in 2018 and 2019, Mr. Barnett’s concerns about quality issues at Boeing were featured prominently in The New York Times and other news outlets, as examples of widespread problems with the company’s manufacturing.
Mr. Barnett told The Times in 2019 that he had discovered clusters of titanium slivers that were hanging over flight control wires in some planes. Those slivers were produced when fasteners were fitted into nuts.
Mr. Barnett said in interviews that he had repeatedly urged his bosses to remove the slivers but that they had refused and moved him to another part of the plant.
The Federal Aviation Administration in 2017 required that Dreamliners be cleared of shavings before they were delivered to airlines. Boeing said at the time that it was complying with that directive and was working with a supplier to improve the design of the nut. But the company said that the issue did not present a flight safety issue.
Mr. Barnett also told The Times in 2019 that he had reported to management that defective parts had gone missing, raising the possibility that they had been installed in planes.
He said that his bosses told him to finish the paperwork on the missing parts without figuring out where they had gone.
The F.A.A. investigated and found that Boeing had lost some damaged parts.
“As a quality manager at Boeing, you’re the last line of defense before a defect makes it out to the flying public,” Mr. Barnett told The Times in 2019. “And I haven’t seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I’d put my name on saying it’s safe and airworthy.”
Mr. Barnett, who lived in Pineville, La., shared his concerns again in interviews with The Times this year as questions about quality issues at Boeing re-emerged after an incident on Jan. 5 in which a panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane in midair during an Alaska Airlines flight.
“Over the years, it’s just been a steady pecking away at quality” at Boeing, Mr. Barnett said, adding, “This is not a 737 problem. It’s a Boeing problem.”
Boeing needs to “get back to basics,” he said. “They need to get back to airplane building 101.”
Mr. Barnett’s mother, Vicky Stokes, said in an interview on Tuesday that her son’s experience with Boeing had taken a heavy toll, making him look older than his three brothers even though he was the youngest. “He just carried this on his shoulders for so many years,” she said.
In an interview in January, Mr. Barnett said he no longer flew on planes because of what he’d seen during his time at Boeing.
“I’m not going to set foot on an airplane today,” he said. “It’s sad. It breaks my heart. I love Boeing. I love what it used to stand for.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
