The family of late Boeing Co. whistleblower John Barnett who blamed the planemaker for his suicide last year has settled their wrongful-death lawsuit against the company.
Details of the agreement were not disclosed.
U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks dismissed the complaint on May 12. The case can be reopened if the settlement isn't finalized within 60 days, according to her one-page order.
Barnett's estate sued Boeing in Charleston on March 19, slightly more than a year after the 62-year-old aerospace industry veteran died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Pineville, La., resident was found dead inside his Dodge Ram pickup truck around 10:20 a.m. on March 9, 2024, in the parking lot of the circular Holiday Inn on Savannah Highway, just across the Ashley River from the peninsula.
Barnett — known as "Swampy" to friends and "Mitch" to family — had traveled to the city for depositions in a 2017 whistleblower case he filed against his former employer that later gained worldwide attention.
He alleged the aerospace giant he once revered retaliated against him for raising concerns about the safety of the 787 Dreamliner jets that are built in North Charleston.
His family's attorneys said in the lawsuit that Barnett was pressured not to document defects and that senior management then "embarked on a concerted campaign of harassment, abuse and intimidation intended to discourage, discredit and humiliate him until he would either give up or be discredited."
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