Boeing Faces 10 More Whistleblowers After Mysterious Deaths

In the span of two months, two Boeing whistleblowers have died under mysterious circumstances.

John Barnett (L), Joshua Dean

The first, 62-year-old John Barnett, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 9. He was found dead in his Dodge Ram truck holding a silver pistol in his hand in the parking lot of a South Carolina hotel after he failed to show up for the second half of his testimony for a lawsuit against the company. Barnett, who retired in 2017, warned that Boeing had cut corners to speed its 787 Dreamliners into service. He gave numerous interviews in which he described how he lodged internal complaints about serious security flaws. 

The second, 45-year-old Joshua Dean, a former Spirit AeroSystems quality auditor, died last Tuesday from a fast-growing infection. In 2022 he raised the alarm over improperly drilled bulkhead holes for the 737 MAX, and was fired less than a year later.

“I think they were sending out a message to anybody else,” Dean told NPR, adding “If you are too loud, we will silence you.“

Now, Boeing faces 10 more whistleblowers – and attorneys for the deceased men are hoping that the deaths don’t spook the rest away, the NY Post reports.

Boeing whistleblowers (from left) quality engineer Sam Salehpour; Ed Pierson, executive director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety and a former Boeing engineer; Joe Jacobsen, aerospace engineer and technical adviser to the Foundation for Aviation Safety and a former FAA engineer; and Shawn Pruchnicki, PhD, professional practice assistant professor for integrated systems engineering at the Ohio State University, are sworn in before they testify at a Senate hearing to examine Boeing’s broken safety culture (AP)

“These men were heroes. So are all the whistleblowers. They loved the company and wanted to help the company do better,” attorney Brian Knowles – who represented both Barnett and Dean, told the Post. “They didn’t speak out to be aggravating or for fame. They’re raising concerns because people’s lives are at stake.”

According to Knowles, “I knew John Barnett for seven years and never saw anything that would indicate he would take his own life,” but added “Then again, I’ve never dealt with someone who did (commit suicide). So maybe you don’t see the signs. I don’t know.”

Knowles pointed out that the Charleston, SC, police are still wrapping up their investigation of Barnett’s death — and that it may take some weeks for tests to reveal more about Dean’s passing.

“It’s a stunning loss,” Spirit AeroSystems spokesman Joe Buccino said of Dean. (The company is not to be confused with Spirit Airlines.) “Our focus here has been on his loved ones.”

Buccino insisted that Spirit “encourages” employees to come forth with their concerns and that they are then “cloaked under protection.” -NY Post

And while Boeing says they also “encourage” employees to speak up, that’s news to other Boeing whistleblowers who say they’ve either face retaliation or been ignored.

For example, Ed Pierson, 61, a former senior manager at Boeing’s Renton, Washington 737 factory, left Boeing six years ago and created the Foundation for Aviation Safety – after trying in vain to get Boeing execs to shut down production of the plane prior to two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 which left 346 people dead.

“It’s an unstable company right now from the top to the bottom,” Pierson told the Post. “Senior corporate leadership is so fixated on not admitting the truth that they can’t admit anything.”

Last month, Pierson told Congress about what he characterized as a “criminal cover-up” by Boeing bosses.

“Boeing is an American icon,” Pierson said. “This company is incredibly important to our country, both economically and in terms of national security with its commercial aviation side and its military defense work. But it doesn’t work when you have the wrong people driving the bus.”

Following Barnett’s death, Boeing employees told The Post that he had made “powerful enemies,” and one said that they were skeptical that it was a suicide.

This guy is about to become Boeing’s highest-paid employee. https://t.co/QcUPFz0D1h pic.twitter.com/qoOEvndPHe

— Robert Sterling (@RobertMSterling) May 5, 2024