Ex-Boeing employee who worked with whistleblower found dead in his car claims the company bullies workers into overlooking safety concerns and demands only quick 'nuts and bolts' fixes

A former Boeing employee who worked with deceased whistleblower John Barnett has claimed technicians were 'constantly' under pressure to make quick fixes and not to document mistakes. 

Joseph Clayton, a former technician at Boeing's North Charleston plant told DailyMail.com that 'end level management pressured people to do things that were unsavory, such as do undocumented maintenance' while he worked at the company between 2013 and 2019. 

'As an AMP mechanic everything has to be documented but they would say "just put a nut and bolt in and fix it without filing the problem"' Clayton recalled. 

'Almost everyone there has had to do something not correct' he said. 

It comes after the death of whistleblower John Barnett, who had been in the middle of a deposition in a lawsuit related to production of the 787 Dreamliner at the same factory, which opened in 2009. 

Joseph Clayton, a former technician at Boeing's North Charleston plant told DailyMail.com that 'end level management pressured people to do things that were unsavory'

Clayton worked in Boeing's North Charleston plant between 2013 and 2019 

Boeing has been under renewed scrutiny after a door plug blew out off an Alaska Airlines plane in January 

Boeing's share price plummeted on Tuesday morning after the whistleblower's death 

The suit alleged under-pressure workers were deliberately fitting 'sub-standard' parts to Boeing 787s, and that management were sweeping defects under the rug to save money.

The 62-year-old died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Charleston County coroner's office in South Carolina confirmed on Tuesday. 

'If you said "no" and wanted to do it properly they would say you were being insubordinate,' Clayton told DailyMail.com about management's attitude to production issues. 

'I would ask them to put everything in an email and of course they never sent that email. 

'As flight mechanics, we're more liable for faults than your common worker' he said. 

Adding: 'I am liable for inappropriate maintenance going back twenty years, so you have to have it documented.' 

Clayton described the coercive and fearful experience of leaving the multibillion dollar company in 2019. 

'When I left I had an NDA so I can only speak in vague terms. It technically wasn't a condition of my leaving but they gave me two weeks pay if I did sign it. 

Whistleblower John Barnett had been in the middle of a deposition in a lawsuit related to production of the 787 Dreamliner at the same factory, which opened in 2009.

 Barnett claimed the aviation giant had fired its quality control inspectors and was relying on mechanics shortly before he was found dead on Saturday

Barnett was found dead inside his truck on Saturday in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn in Charleston, pictured above

'I knew that once I did plan to leave I needed an escape plan, in case I was steam rolled by them. 

'They took a lot of people who wanted to do the right thing even though it takes longer, and they would send them to the 'the 19th section' and put you in there and forget about you' he said of his fellow employees that spoke out. 

'It's a multibillionaire company so there is no telling what could happen' Clayton said when asked about concerns over his and other whistleblower's safety.  

'I'm sad about my friend on the flight line' Clayton said of Barnett. 

'Working with John he was a good dude, its one of those things where there's no telling what could happen day to day at that place. 

'The pressures change and come from different directions, they're good at getting away with what they're doing, they know what they're doing they've been doing it a long time to get away with it.' 

'I still have friends that work there and they say it is still the same as it was except for a bit better pay and benefits.' 

Boeing did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment on Clayton's allegations.  

Other former employees and whistleblowers have filed lawsuits against Boeing because of its approach to risk, allegedly prioritizing speed over safety, as well as reportedly retaliating against employees who came forward. 

Workers have also filed nearly a dozen claims and safety complaints with federal regulators, detailing issues such as defective manufacturing, debris left on planes coming off the assembly line and pressure to not report violations. 

Some such mistakes were discovered by Barnett, who worked as a quality manager at Boeing for nearly three decades before retiring in 2017. 

Barnett discovered clusters of metal slivers hanging over the wiring that commands the flight controls on several planes he checked. 

In his lawsuit Barnett detailed how he repeatedly urged his bosses to remove the shavings. 

However, they refused and moved him to another part of the plant.

A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration told the New York Times the agency had inspected several planes certified by Boeing as free of such debris and found those same metal slivers. 

In certain circumstances the problem can lead to electrical shorts and cause fires,  spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said. 

'As a quality manager at Boeing, you're the last line of defense before a defect makes it out to the flying public,' Barnett said previously.

'And I haven't seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I'd put my name on saying it's safe and airworthy.' 

'I've found tubes of sealant, nuts, stuff from the build process,' Rich Mester, a former technician who reviewed planes before they were sent to airline or military clients, told the New York Times. 

'They're supposed to have been inspected for this stuff, and it still makes it out to us' he explained. 

On one occasion Boeing employees found a ladder and a string of lights left inside the tails of a plane, near the gears of the horizontal stabilizer.

'It could have locked up the gears,' Mester, who was fired and subsequently filed a claim with the National Labor Relations Board, said. 

Former managers Jennifer Jacobsen and David McClaughlin filed complaints with the FAA in 2014 when hundreds of tools disappeared at the plant allegedly as a result of time pressure put on employees. 

Some were 'found lying around the aircraft,' Jacobsen said in her complaint.

Shares dropped by more than 4 percent Tuesday morning as the aviation giant's stock slumped to a five-month low on the news late Monday that John Barnett was found dead in a hotel parking lot in Charleston, SC, on Sunday 

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun  speaks with reports at the Capitol in January after MAX 9 planes were grounded follwing the door incident. The company is now under criminal investigation

Share prices for the American aviation giant dropped by more than 3 percent as it faces multiple scandals regarding their planes

Managers also told employees to install equipment out of order to make it 'appear to Boeing executives in Chicago, the aircraft purchasers and Boeing's shareholders that the work is being performed on schedule, where in fact the aircraft is far behind schedule,' according to their complaints. 

The FAA said it had previously found 'improper tool control' and the 'presence of foreign object debris' but did not find any violations when it investigated the complaints in early 2014. 

Both McClaughlin and Jacobsen left the company when they were accused of inaccurately approving the time sheets of employees who did not report to them.

They claim that Boeing retaliated against them for raising the issues. 

Cynthia Kitchens, a former quality manager, said that she was intimidated by her superiors on the factory floor and in performance reviews after raising safety concerns. 

'It was intimidation,' she told the New York Times.

'Every time I started finding stuff, I was harassed' Kitchens, who unsuccessfully sued Boeing after leaving the company in 2016, said. 

Despite the safety concerns, lawsuits and complaints the pace of production has picked up at Boeing's North Charleston plant. 

Starting this year, Boeing is producing 14 Dreamliners a month, split between North Charleston and Everett, up from the previous 12. 

Boeing is simultaneously eliminating about a hundred quality control positions in North Charleston.