Family sues Boeing over whistleblower death

This story contains details of someone taking their own life, which some readers may find distressing.

The family of a Boeing whistleblower who took his own life last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company.

The complaint alleges that John Barnett was subjected to a campaign of harassment, abuse and humiliation after he raised concerns about safety issues.

It claims that the conduct of the company was "the clear, foreseeable cause" of Mr Barnett's death.

Boeing said it was saddened by Mr Barnett's death and extended its condolences to his family.

The former Boeing manager was found dead from what police described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the car park of a Charleston hotel on 9 March last year.

The 146-page lawsuit has been brought by his mother, Vicky Stokes, and his brothers Rodney and Michael on behalf of his estate. It was filed on Wednesday in the US District Court of South Carolina.

It attributes his death to Boeing's actions, including what it describes as a retaliatory campaign by his managers that amounted to a "hostile work environment".

"Whether or not Boeing intended to drive John to death or merely destroy his ability to function, it was absolutely foreseeable that Boeing's conduct would result in PTSD and John's unbearable depression... Boeing's conduct was the clear cause, and the clear foreseeable cause, of John's death," it says.

It describes Mr Barnett as a dedicated, idealistic worker who "took his role seriously in protecting the flying public" and "believed that he had a personal, legal and moral obligation to ensure… that every possible defect was identified, documented and remedied."

It describes how he was allegedly harassed, denigrated, humiliated and treated with scorn and contempt, as well as being removed from investigations he was working on and blacklisted from transferring to other quality control positions within the company.

Mr Barnett took early retirement from Boeing in March 2017, at a time when the claim says he had been suffering from symptoms of depression and severe anxiety, and knew he was going to be fired. The lawsuit alleges the company continued to put pressure on him, for example by preventing friends who continued to work there from having any contact with him.

Among the exhibits put forward in support of the claim are an email, in which he says, "Boeing has completely destroyed my outlook on life" and his handwritten final note, which says "I can't do this any longer!! Enough!!"

Raised safety concerns

John Barnett worked for Boeing for 32 years.

From 2010, he was employed as a quality manager at Boeing's factory in North Charleston, South Carolina. The facility builds the 787 Dreamliner, a state-of-the-art airliner used mainly on long-haul routes.

During his time at the factory, Mr Barnett raised a number of concerns with management about violations of safety procedures, as well as about defects in aircraft on the production line.

He later took his concerns to the media. In 2019, he told the BBC that:

• under-pressure workers had been deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the production line

• workers had failed to follow procedures intended to track components through the factory, allowing defective components to go missing

• he had uncovered serious problems with oxygen systems on the 787, which could mean one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency

Boeing denied his assertions. However, a 2017 review by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), did uphold some of Mr Barnett's concerns.

It established that the location of at least 53 "non-conforming" parts in the factory was unknown, and that they were considered lost. Boeing was ordered to take remedial action.

On the oxygen cylinders issue, the company said that in 2017 it had "identified some oxygen bottles received from the supplier that were not deploying properly". But it denied that any of them were actually fitted on aircraft.

Safety standards at Boeing have come under a harsh spotlight since an incident last year in which a disused door panel fell off a brand new 737 Max aircraft shortly after takeoff.

The incident, which came five years after two previous catastrophic accidents involving the 737 Max, brought intense scrutiny of the company's quality control procedures and conditions in the factory.

The company appointed a new chief executive last year, industry veteran Kelly Ortberg, and has produced a detailed action plan to address concerns raised by regulators about issues on the factory floor.

In response to the lawsuit being filed, Boeing issued a brief statement.

"We are saddened by John Barnett's death and extend our condolences to his family," it said.

Previously, however, the company has pushed back against the allegations made against it, telling the BBC: "Boeing reviewed and addressed quality issues that Mr Barnett raised before he retired in 2017, as well as other quality issues referred to in the complaint. Engineering analysis determined the issues he raised did not affect airplane safety."

It also drew attention to a decision made earlier in Mr Barnett's case, in 2020, in which the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration concluded the company had not breached whistleblower protection law.

It added: "We appreciate employees who raise their voice, and we have systems in place to encourage them to speak up confidentially or anonymously."

If you have been affected by the issues in this story, you can find support from the BBC's Action Line.