Boeing whistleblower John Barnett who died 'by suicide' complained that company managers had spied on him while he worked there, bombshell court docs claim

A former Boeing manager who raised safety questions about the aircraft maker worried that his bosses were spying on him, his attorneys allege. 

The body of John Barnett, 62, was found on March 9 in a car outside a Holiday Inn, suffering from what the Charleston County Coroner's Office said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

The Louisiana resident was pronounced dead at the scene. On Wednesday, his lawyers, Robin Turkewitz and Brian Knowles, referenced a full list of Barnett's complaint against his employer as outlined in a legal complaint for wrongful retaliation filed in 2021.

Among those is that after raising a certain issue in June 2014, the company retaliated by having a manager spy on him.  

Boeing's production practices have been questioned both on the 787, a model called the Dreamliner, and the company's best-selling plane, the 737 Max. 

The company has come under increased scrutiny since a panel blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. 

Barnett had alleged that second-rate parts were literally removed from scrap bins, before being fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays

In early January, an unused emergency exit door blew off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max shortly after take-off from Portland International, sparking a still-ongoing DOJ investigation

A United Airlines Boeing 777 loses tire while taking off from San Francisco, crushing cars on the ground

A United Airlines Boeing 737 Max suffers landing gear failure after arriving at Houston airport

Barnett said in his complaint that he raised the issue of Boeing's 'deep-rooted and persistent culture of concealment' multiple times. He goes on to accuse the company of not documenting and fixing other problems. 

In retaliation for his complaints, Barnett says that he was given low scores on performance reports, isolated and forbidden from transferring out of South Carolina. 

He says he was 'treated with scorn and contempt by upper management.' Thanks to his treatment, Barnett said that he had to take medical leave in order to deal with stress. 

Low scores on performance reviews can affect an employees changes of earning a raise or gaining promotion. Prior to making complaints, Barnett alleges that he was a 'top performer' at the Boeing plant in North Charleston. 

The deceased man was with Boeing for 32 years before retiring. His primary role was as a quality manager. Other roles included working as an electrician for 747s, inspecting, auditing and quality insurance. 

Another complaint outlined in the legal filing saw Barnett raising the issue of mechanics doing self-inspections on their own work, something that is prohibited by the Federal Aviation Administration. 

In addition to now following FAA protocols, Barnett said that Boeing didn't even follow internal rules. 

The 62-year-old was found in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina, - seven years after he retired following a 32-year career with Boeing

Boeing's assembly plant in North Charleston - where the deceased worked for decades - is seen here

After emailing another quality control manager in 2012 about a complaint, he claims he was told the company didn't believe him and therefore no investigation took place. 

Company officials allegedly asked him to stop complaining about staff taking one piece from a plane and using it on another without authorization. 

For that complaint, Barnett said that he was publicly chastised in front of his staff and moved to a new shift. 

When he filed another complaint in June 2014 regarding procedures not being followed, Barnett alleges that the company had a manager 'spy' on him as he told 'to work in the grey areas.' 

Later that same year, Barnett was put on a 60 day 'corrective action plan' and was told by human resources that there was an investigation underway into his behavior. 

In July 2015, Barnett said that he saw his team reassigned without his knowledge and thus leaving other areas that he was responsible for understaffed. 

A year later, Barnett said he was challenged with performing a task involving recovering lost parts during an impossible timeframe.  When he raised this, he was told to 'let it go.' 

A month after that, Barnett said that he was removed from an investigation into defective passenger oxygen masks finding that 75 out of 300 didn't work. After his removal, he alleges that the investigation never addressed the problem. 

Barnett then saw mechanical staff be asked to use scrap parts in planes without proper documentation. When he complained about this, Barnett said he was blocked from applying for a promotion.

 In October 2016, Barnett took his complaints to Boeing's national office. In the legal complaint he says that after being told that it would be handled, the investigation reverted back to staff in the Charleston office. 

According to this filing, the same year that he retired, 2017, Barnett filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in which he raised his issues as well as the personal punishments he believed that he received.

Early in the year, he says he learned that he was on a list of 'quality managers to get rid of.' 

Boeing issued a statement upon the release of the complaint. 

'We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends. 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 about its 2020 disposition of Mr. Barnett’s claims,' the company said. 

Police in Charleston said earlier this month that detectives were waiting for a formal determination of the cause of death and 'any additional findings that might shed further light on the circumstances surrounding' the end of Barnett's life. 

Police noted 'the global attention this case has garnered.'

Barnett was a longtime Boeing employee and worked as a quality-control manager before he retired in 2017. In the years after that, he shared his concerns with journalists.

'John was deeply concerned about the safety of the aircraft and flying public, and had identified some serious defects that he felt were not adequately addressed,' Barnett's brother, Rodney, said in a family statement to The Associated Press earlier this month. 

'He said that Boeing had a culture of concealment and was putting profits over safety.' 

Rodney Barnett said working at Boeing created stress for John.

'He was suffering from PTSD and anxiety attacks as a result of being subjected to the hostile work environment at Boeing, which we believe led to his death,' the brother said.

Boeing, in a one-sentence statement, said, 'We are saddened by Mr. Barnett's passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.'

Experts say the reasons people take their own lives are complicated, and that recent increases in suicides could be driven by several factors, including higher rates of depression and limited access to mental-health services.

In 2019, Barnett told The New York Times about quality issues at Boeing's factory in South Carolina, where the 787 jetliner is assembled.

Barnett said he found discarded metal shavings near wiring for the flight controls. He said it could have been 'catastrophic' if the sharp pieces had pierced the wiring. He said after he complained to superiors, they moved him to another part of the plant.

Barnett told the BBC that same year that up to a quarter of the oxygen systems on the 787 – a two-aisle plane that airlines use mostly for international flights – might not work because of faulty parts installed at the Boeing plant. Boeing denied the claim.

Barnett filed a whistleblower complaint with the government, which is still pending. A hearing on the case was scheduled for June.