The family of an airplane safety whistleblower is suing Boeing over his
death
[March 21, 2025] CHARLESTON,
S.C. (AP) — The family of a former Boeing quality control manager who
police say killed himself after lawyers questioned him for days about
his whistleblowing on alleged jumbo jet defects sued the airplane maker
Thursday.
Boeing subjected John Barnett to a “campaign of harassment, abuse and
intimidation intended to discourage, discredit and humiliate him until
he would either give up or be discredited,” lawyers for the family wrote
in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court in South Carolina.
Barnett, 62, shot himself March 9, 2024, in Charleston after answering
questions from attorneys for several days. He lived in Louisiana.
“Boeing had threatened to break John, and break him it did,” the
attorneys wrote in court papers.
Boeing has not yet responded in court filings.
“We are saddened by John Barnett’s death and extend our condolences to
his family,” the company said in a statement this week.
Barnett was a longtime Boeing employee and worked as a quality-control
manager before he retired in 2017. In the years after that, he shared
his concerns with journalists and became a whistleblower.
Barnett said he once saw discarded metal shavings near wiring for the
flight controls that could have cut wiring and caused a catastrophe. He
also noted problems with up to a quarter of the oxygen systems on
Boeing’s 787 planes.
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 Barnett shared his concerns with his
supervisors and others before leaving Boeing, but according to the
lawsuit they responded by ignoring him and then harassing him.
Boeing intentionally gave Barnett inaccurate, poor
job reviews and less desirable shifts, according to the lawsuit.
Barnett's family argues the company publicly blamed him for delays
that angered his co-workers and prevented him from transferring to
another plant.
Barnett eventually was diagnosed with PTSD and his mental condition
deteriorated, his family said.
“Whether or not Boeing intended to drive John to his death or merely
destroy his ability to function, it was absolutely foreseeable that
PTSD and John's unbearable depression, panic attacks, and anxiety,
which would in turn lead to an elevated risk of suicide,” the
lawsuit said. "Boeing may not have pulled the trigger, but Boeing's
conduct was the clear cause, and the clear foreseeable cause, of
John's death."
The lawsuit doesn't specify the amount of damages sought by
Barnett's family but asks for compensation for emotional distress
and mental anguish, back pay, 10 years of lost future earnings as
well as bonuses, health expenses and his lost life insurance
benefits.
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