The family of a prominent Boeing whistle that killed himself last year has filed an illegal lawsuit with the plane manufacturer.
The suit, which was filed on Wednesday at the South Carolina Federal Court, says Boeing contributed to “unbearable depression, panic attacks and anxiety” by John Barnett has suffered for many years.
“Boeing may not have pulled the trigger, but Boeing’s behavior was the clear cause” of Mr Barnett’s death, the lawsuit said. His family requested a jury trial.
Mr Barnett worked for Boeing for more than three decades, about half of this year as a quality manager. In 2017, he left a job early at the company’s factory in North Charleston, SC, which produces 787 Dreamliner after saying that the company had reacted against him to talk about quality and security concerns.
Mr Barnett’s concerns in Boeing were clearly presented to the New York Times and other news agencies as examples of problems with the construction of the company.
He later sued the company and was in Charleston for a deposition in this case last March, when he was found dead in his truck in his hotel parking lot. A county judge ruled that he had shooted himself. He was 62 years old.
In a statement, Boeing said: “We are sad by John Barnett’s death and we are expanding our condolences to his family.” The company previously challenged quality and retaliation claims.
Boeing has endured two major security crises over the last decade. The first followed two deadly crashes of its 737 maximum plane in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019, where 346 people died. These crashes, which were later accused of flight control software, LED regulators around the world to make the plane for almost two years. Then, at the beginning of last year, a panel dropped a 737 max during a flight. While this incident did not result in serious injuries, concerns about the quality of the company’s aircraft and the forced Boeing to make significant changes, including the replacement of its Managing Director.
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