Boeing Whistleblower Who Questioned Production Standards Found Dead In US

Former Boeing employee John Barnett, who questioned the aircraft company's production standards, has been found dead in the US, the BBC reported on Tuesday. The 62-year-old died from a "self-inflicted" wound on March 9, Charleston County coroner told the BBC.

Barnett had worked for Boeing for over 30 years before he retired in 2017 on health grounds.

He had been recently giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the US airplane manufacturer, which has suffered a series of safety issues in recent years, including the fatal Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes of 737 MAX planes in 2018 and 2019 that killed more than 350 people.

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In 2019, John told the BBC that "under-pressure workers" had been deliberately fitting "sub-standard parts" to Boeing aircraft on the production line.

Barnett claimed that he had uncovered serious problems with oxygen systems, which could mean one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency.

He also told the BBC that workers had failed to follow procedures intended to track components through the factory, allowing defective components to go missing. He said that he had alerted managers about the concerns, but they did not take any action.

Boeing's Production Quality Under Scanner

John Barnett's death comes days after a US audit, which was ordered after a mid-cabin door plug blew out of the Alaska Airlines flight in January, found multiple instances of non-compliance at Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which undertook a six-week audit of the two manufacturers following the January 5 incident, "found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements."

"The FAA identified non-compliance issues in Boeing's manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control," the US agency said in an official statement.

A 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines suffered a mid-flight blowout of a fuselage panel, leaving a gaping hole in the cabin and triggering an emergency landing.

Boeing executives have also met with FAA chief Mike Whitaker, who gave the company 90 days to address quality control problems.

To hold the company accountable for its production quality issues, the FAA has also halted production expansion of the Boeing 737 MAX and is exploring the use of a third party to conduct independent reviews of quality systems.