John Barnett

John Barnett   (Whistleblower, engineer)
Born	1961 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	2024 (Age 63) Charleston, South Carolina, US.
Nationality	American
Member of	Rhodes Scholar/1915
Employee and whistleblower on Boeing found death, ruled a suicide.  Aerospace Engineer In office 1985 - 2017 Employer Boeing

John Barnett was an American aerospace engineer, Boeing employee, and whistleblower. Barnett worked at the Boeing South Carolina facility in North Charleston, South Carolina, for 32 years before retiring in 2017. Around his retirement, Barnett revealed dozens of cases of corruption potentially having caused deadly incidents with plane builder Boeing. During the filming of his affidavit in 2024 regarding dozens of other claims of Boeing crimes, Barnett was found dead in a car parking lot from a "gunshot to the head", with local US media reporting it to be a suicide.

Early life

John Barnett is according to the NYT a Rhodes Scholar, member of the international postgraduate list of students eligible to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Many of these scholars later are part of protected and well-respected groups or professionals in society, such as presidents, doctors or journalists.

Whistleblowing

John Barnett: What Boeing’s Biggest Whistleblower Claimed About The Company

Barnett revealed in 2019 that many of the oxygen systems for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner were faulty as a result of poor maintenance ordered for cutting costs (showcasing tests which showed a failure rate of 25%). In 2019. Boeing denied everything, even though a 2017 review by the FAA upheld several of Barnett's concerns: it was discovered that over 50 "non-conforming" plane components in the facility were considered missing as their location could not be found.

In a 2019 NYT piece, Barnett also reported that he had discovered "clusters of metal shavings" left near electrical systems for flight controls, which could have “catastrophic” results if the shavings were able to penetrate the wiring.

Death

Full article: Boeing

Barnett filed an AIR 21 (a law protecting airline safety whistleblowers) case against Boeing, claiming Boeing "undermined his career because he had raised safety concerns at the Charleston plant." Barnett was reportedly supposed to report for the third day of his deposition known to Boeing's lawyers and his lawyer when he stopped showing up. He was found in a Charleston parking lot.

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