A former Boeing employee who raised concerns about production standards at the company has been found dead.
John Barnett worked for Boeing for 32 years, giving evidence recently as part of a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.
The coroner in Charleston County, South Carolina says he died Saturday from a “self-inflicted” wound in his truck.
Barnett had alleged in the lawsuit that some workers were fitting sub-standard parts to aircrafts on the assembly line, with some removed from scrap bins to avoid delays.
Barnett’s death was reported as the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the door plug blowout incident on an Alaska Airlines flight. The Wall Street Journal reports the DOJ has opened a criminal investigation and federal prosecutors have interviewed flight attendants and pilots who were onboard.
In January, a plane’s fuselage, or the “door plug,” detached a few minutes after takeoff. The DOJ is looking into whether Boeing violated an earlier settlement, which resolved a federal investigation after two fatal 737 Max 8 crashes killed over 300 people. Alaska Airlines says it’s “fully cooperating” and the company doesn’t think it’s a “target of the investigation.”
The New York Times reported that Boeing supplier Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita failed seven of 13 audits conducted by the FAA after the door plug failure. The Times said documents show the FAA “observed mechanics at Spirit using a hotel key card to check a door seal” and Spirit mechanics “apply Dawn soap to a door seal as lubricant.” Boeing issued a response, saying “we continue to implement immediate changes and develop a comprehensive action plan to strengthen safety and quality with transparency at every turn.”
