Household of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett accuses firm of hounding him earlier than he dedicated suicide

The household of a former Boeing high quality management supervisor who police say killed himself after legal professionals questioned him for days about his whistleblowing on alleged jumbo jet defects are suing the aviation big.

Boeing subjected John Barnett to a “marketing campaign of harassment, abuse and intimidation supposed to discourage, discredit and humiliate him till he would both surrender or be discredited,” legal professionals for the household wrote in a wrongful loss of life lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court docket in South Carolina.

Barnett, 62, shot himself March 9, 2024, in Charleston after answering questions from attorneys for a number of days in relation to a defamation lawsuit he had filed towards Boeing. He lived in Louisiana.

“Boeing had threatened to interrupt John, and break him it did,” the attorneys wrote in court docket papers on behalf of his household.

Boeing has not but responded in court docket filings. 

“We’re saddened by John Barnett’s loss of life and prolong our condolences to his household,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement this week. 

Barnett was a Boeing worker for 32 years, working as a quality-control supervisor earlier than he retired in 2017. Within the years after that, he shared his considerations with journalists and have become a whistleblower.

“John grew to become involved when he transferred to Boeing’s South Carolina plant in 2010 — high quality points, procedures that wasn’t being adopted, brief cuts that was making an attempt to be taken,” his brother Rodney Barnett, informed CBS Morning Information in an unique interview in March 2024. 

Barnett mentioned he as soon as noticed discarded metallic shavings close to wiring for the flight controls that might have reduce the wires and induced a disaster. He additionally famous issues with as much as 1 / 4 of the oxygen programs on Boeing’s 787 planes. 

Barnett shared his considerations along with his supervisors and others earlier than leaving Boeing, however in accordance with the lawsuit they responded by ignoring him after which harassing him.

Boeing deliberately gave Barnett inaccurate, poor job evaluations and fewer fascinating shifts, in accordance with the lawsuit. Barnett’s household argues the corporate publicly blamed him for delays that angered his co-workers and prevented him from transferring to a different plant.

Barnett finally was identified with PTSD and his psychological situation deteriorated, his household mentioned.

“Whether or not or not Boeing supposed to drive John to his loss of life or merely destroy his capacity to perform, it was completely foreseeable that PTSD and John’s insufferable despair, panic assaults, and nervousness, which might in flip result in an elevated threat of suicide,” the lawsuit mentioned. “Boeing might not have pulled the set off, however Boeing’s conduct was the clear trigger, and the clear foreseeable trigger, of John’s loss of life.”

Alaska Airways blowout 

A panel of consultants in February 2024 criticized Boeing’s security tradition, elevating the warmth on the plane producer following a Jan. 5 incident during which the door panel of an Alaska Airways 737 Max 9 airplane made by the Boeing blew off mid-flight. The incident got here after different issues of safety had been linked to Boeing’s Max line of plane, heightening considerations in regards to the jet’s security. 

In its report following the Alaska Airways blowout, the Federal Aviation Administration mentioned a panel of presidency and aviation business consultants had “discovered a lack of knowledge of safety-related metrics in any respect ranges” of Boeing, including that “staff had issue distinguishing the variations amongst numerous measuring strategies, their function and outcomes.”

“The failure of high quality management at Boeing over the past decade is well-known and properly documented, as are the results of that failure, which embody planes crashing and coming aside within the air,” legal professionals state within the lawsuit filed on behalf of Barnett’s mom Vicky Stokes and two different members of the family.

The lawsuit does not specify the quantity of damages sought by Barnett’s household however asks for compensation for emotional misery and psychological anguish, again pay, 10 years of misplaced future earnings in addition to bonuses, well being bills and his misplaced life insurance coverage advantages.

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If you happen to or somebody you already know is in emotional misery or a suicidal disaster, you possibly can attain the 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You may also chat with the 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline right here.

For extra details about psychological well being care sources and assist, The Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness (NAMI) HelpLine might be reached Monday by Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or e-mail data@nami.org.