Boeing Whistleblower John Barnett Found Dead Amid Depositions Against Plane Company

'When he failed to turn up on Saturday, “inquiries were made at his hotel,” where he was found in his truck in the parking lot.' Daily Beast

from TIME

... “John was in the midst of a deposition in his whistleblower retaliation case, which finally was nearing the end,” Knowles and his co-counsel Robert Turkewitz said in a statement to TIME. “He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on. We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it.”...

Rodney Barnett, John Barnett’s brother, told the Associated Press that John “was suffering from PTSD and anxiety attacks as a result of being subjected to the hostile work environment at Boeing, which we believe led to his death.”...

 “This is not a 737 problem, this is a Boeing problem,” he said, adding that Boeing started removing inspection operations in 2012. “What we’re seeing with the door plug blowout is what I’ve seen with the rest of the airplane as far as jobs not being completed properly, inspection steps being removed, issues being ignored.”

Controversy surrounding the Alaska Airlines incident is still mounting, with the Wall Street Journal reporting last week that the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the case. And Boeing, which was accused of not being cooperative with federal investigators, admitted to Congress on Friday that it could not find records on the exploded door panel...

As its reputation has sunk, so has Boeing’s stock price—dropping by more than 26% since the start of the year, per NASDAQ.

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Boeing congressional lobbyist tries to discredit NTSB testimony

from Seattle Times Mar 8 2024

An outside Boeing lobbyist on Capitol Hill sent an email to Republican members of Congress late Wednesday bluntly attempting to discredit the Senate testimony of National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.

After The Seattle Times asked about the email Friday, both Boeing and the lobbyist scrambled to undo the potential damage.

In a statement, Boeing said it “did not authorize this communication and regret that it was sent. We deeply respect the NTSB and will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with them.”

The lobbyist responded that the message had been sent out inadvertently and without Boeing’s knowledge.

Homendy had scathingly criticized Boeing for failing to produce documentation of the botched installation work on the door plug that blew out midair on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Jan. 5.

She also testified that Boeing had not provided the names of all the employees involved, despite repeated requests, and that the NTSB had not been able to interview even the manager of the team involved...

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Not Just Airplanes: Why The Government Often Lets Industry Regulate Itself

from NPR 2019

Since an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft crashed March 10, the Federal Aviation Administration has been under a microscope.

The agency had delegated to Boeing much of the testing of its 737 Max jets. Critics say the FAA let the company basically certify its own plane. But, it turns out, that sort of thing happens a lot in the federal government.

The FAA's model of self-regulation has come under attack from the government's own watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, which criticized the practice as far back as the 1990s.

But James Goodwin of the Center for Progressive Reform, a left-leaning research group, says "the American public would be surprised, and maybe even concerned, if they knew how widespread the practice of self-regulation was."

It's especially prevalent in agencies that regulate single industries, like the FAA with air transport, or the Federal Railroad Administration, which allows self-certification of conductors and engineers on trains.

Professor Thomas McGarity of the University of Texas law school says you can also see it at the Department of Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, known as BSEE or "Bessie." "It's the agency that failed pretty badly with the Deepwater Horizon blowout several years ago," McGarity says.
"It's a single agency regulator and it allows owners of offshore oil rigs to self- certify, do their annual certifications."...

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Ex-Boeing Quality Manager Warns of 737s Being Back in the Air ... Too Soon, Might Not Be Safe

• Oct 29 2018  Indonesia Airlines Flight JT610 Boeing 737 Max 189 dead
• Mar 9 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Boeing 737 Max 157 dead

from TMZ Jan 31 2024

Boeing's 737 planes are being given the green light to get back up into the sky -- but a guy who used to do quality assurance for them says ... it might be too soon, not safe enough.

We talked to former Boeing quality manager John Barnett -- who came on "TMZ Live" Wednesday to discuss the fact that his old company has said their 737 Max 9 aircrafts are ready to hit the runway again ... this just a few weeks after the Alaska Airlines incident.

The speed at which this has all unfolded has alarmed many, and John here is right there with them in the concerned department ... and his reasoning lies in his personal experience.

Watch what he has to say for yourself -- John explains how things ran when he was in the field and how they've allegedly changed. Based on what he's claiming here, it's troubling, 'cause he suggests cutting corners is something the industry at large has leaned into.

John claims that inspection operators and experts have been getting slashed from assembly lines in recent years -- an awful trend that he suspects has only continued since he left...

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