Former Boeing worker’s suicide sparks renewed concerns over safety and whistleblower treatment.
John Barnett worked at Boeing for more than three decades, spending much of his career checking the safety and quality of the company’s planes. He retired in 2017 but didn’t stay quiet about what he saw. After stepping away from his job, he started speaking publicly about serious safety concerns he said he raised while still working there. According to Barnett, some of these issues were dangerous enough to put passengers at risk. He described metal shavings left near flight control wiring that could have caused major problems if they had sliced through the wires. He also said a large number of oxygen systems on certain planes might not work properly in an emergency. Barnett claimed he told his supervisors about these problems before he retired. Instead of fixing things, he said the company pushed back, ignored him, and even started treating him poorly. Years later, these same concerns were part of an ongoing legal fight. Barnett became involved in a whistleblower’s case, and in March 2024, he traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, to speak with attorneys. After several days of questioning, Barnett was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 62 years old and had traveled from his home in Louisiana.
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