Prior to his death, whistleblower John Barnett was testifying against Boeing over concerns about standards.

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.

  • @[email protected]
    30•9 months ago

    He is the reason some people wants the US to be a bit more like Russia. Yeah, no, this wasn’t a suicide, this was to stop the case that he himself had embarked on a long-running legal action on and that he had been in Charleston for legal interviews for. This stops the case in its tracks.

    “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.”

    - https://time.com/6900123/boeing-whistleblower-john-barnett-found-dead-deposition-safety/

    Please don’t reply if you are just going to spam “BuT sUiCiDe”. If that’s false, he’s just another casualty of Boeing. If that’s true, he’s just another casualty of Boeing.

    Funny how he takes his own life in an hotel car park, and no one hears it. Let me guess, he also happened to buy the gun and get the gun permit the same day … His anxiety never manifested as suicidal tendencies, and if anything, taking action had decreased it.

    • nadram
      4•9 months ago

      Or, this is the reason why the USA already is like Russia… “Suicide by 3 shots in the back then jumped out of the window” kind of scenarios.

      • @[email protected]
        2•9 months ago

        Some parts of the USA already are, but in pockets. The USA is definitely an oligarchy at this point, but still not a complete autocracy, and there’s still a reasonable amount of trust that an actual investigation will be taking place regarding the circumstances of his death, which means not being able to hire just any sort of hitman for these stints.