John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.

In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.

Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett’s passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.

It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating.

  • nifty
    link
    10310 months ago

    How about customers just flat out refuse to fly on Boeing planes?

    • SeaJ
      link
      fedilink
      7110 months ago

      The fact that several airlines let you filter out plane models indicates people are indeed doing that. Airbus: no fuss; no muss.

    • RBG
      link
      fedilink
      1610 months ago

      At what part of the trip. When boarding? You think the airline will accommodate? You already paid.

        • RBG
          link
          fedilink
          10
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          That assumes there will always be a good alternative to choose from.

          From where I live to go back home to my parents there is exactly one provider that flies directly. All other connections have stop-overs. Not even talking about price difference.

          • nifty
            link
            29 months ago

            I get wanting to save your time, but if you die there’s no time left to save

      • @raspberriesareyummy
        link
        2110 months ago

        I am actually at the point where I will avoid Boeing 737-MAX at booking, ask again at check-in to confirm the plane type, and if I saw one at the gate, I would refuse to board and accept the money as a loss. Unfortunately not everyone can afford re-booking like that. So f*ck Boeing and I just hope that Airbus won’t ever be that corrupt (chances are they are or will be at some point).

        • @chiliedogg
          link
          99 months ago

          You paying not to fly is the optimal result for the airlines.

          • @bluehexagon
            link
            39 months ago

            Perhaps the goal is to feel safe, not to damage the company.

            • @raspberriesareyummy
              link
              29 months ago

              yeah, looks like previous poster didn’t understand I value my life more than money :)

        • @Olhonestjim
          link
          59 months ago

          Pilots should also refuse to fly them.

          • @Emerald
            link
            49 months ago

            I mean… It takes a bit to learn how to fly a plane. They wouldn’t really want to dispose of that skill and learn to fly Airbus instead.

            • @Olhonestjim
              link
              39 months ago

              I’m no pilot, but I can’t imagine these particular variants have been around so long for retraining to be a serious issue. Not when mass death is on the line and older, reliable Boeing planes still exist.

              • @raspberriesareyummy
                link
                39 months ago

                I am not sure what you are trying to say exactly, however the re-certification that should be required for the 737-MAX was exactly the reason for introducing the MCAS software to prevent the crew certified for older 737 models from pushing the nose into the ground on take-off. That, together with glossing over the major design change so that no pilot would flag “hey, this is a new plane, we should get a proper new certification for this” contributed to the two crashes, murdering 350something people over profit.

                Boeing wanted to sell a new plane model with significantly altered aerodynamic behavior as a “variant” of an existing one so airlines could save cost on not having to re-certify pilots.

                • @Olhonestjim
                  link
                  19 months ago

                  I’m saying if the newer, problematic planes aren’t going to be forced to ground by regulators, pilots should refuse to fly them. Surely there are plenty of planes still flying built by Boeing before they sold souls. Surely those won’t require massive retraining. Fly them instead.

                  • @raspberriesareyummy
                    link
                    19 months ago

                    If I learned anything in my time on this planet is that there are far too few people in the world willing to stand up for their principles :(

          • @raspberriesareyummy
            link
            39 months ago

            Because most older Boeing models are actually robust aircraft & when the maintenance is in the hand of a capable airline, there’s nothing wrong with them from the perspective of safety. But as Boeing continues to fuck this up, and murder whistleblowers - I doubt there will be Boeing airplanes left to safely board in the future.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        1710 months ago

        The airline will accommodate just fine: “Oh, you don’t want to fly? Too bad, the exit is that way.”

        • @agitatedpotato
          link
          6
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          “I know where the exit is, it’s that hole where the door used to be”

    • @brlemworld
      link
      89 months ago

      Or refuse to fly all together. Flying is extremely carbon intensive.

    • @mods_are_assholes
      link
      29 months ago

      Because its kind of possible to organize such mass boycotts without groups set up to manage it, and none are coming forward on this.

      I mean hell, even the republicunt boycott of beer couldn’t be arsed to actually make a difference, and MAN the mixture of beer and queerness is the exact trigger to rile those bigots.