Family of Boeing whistleblower sues firm over his dying | EUROtoday

This story incorporates particulars of somebody taking their very own life, which some readers could discover distressing.

The household of a Boeing whistleblower who took his personal life final 12 months has filed a wrongful dying lawsuit towards the corporate.

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

It claims that the conduct of the corporate was “the clear, foreseeable cause” of Mr Barnett’s dying.

Boeing stated it was saddened by Mr Barnett’s dying and prolonged its condolences to his household.

The former Boeing supervisor was discovered lifeless from what police described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound within the car parking zone of a Charleston lodge on 9 March final 12 months.

The 146-page lawsuit has been introduced by his mom, Vicky Stokes, and his brothers Rodney and Michael on behalf of his property. It was filed on Wednesday within the US District Court of South Carolina.

It attributes his dying to Boeing’s actions, together with what it describes as a retaliatory marketing 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 devoted, idealistic employee 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 handled with scorn and contempt, in addition to being faraway from investigations he was engaged on and blacklisted from transferring to different high quality management positions inside the firm.

Mr Barnett took early retirement from Boeing in March 2017, at a time when the declare says he had been affected by signs of melancholy and extreme nervousness, and knew he was going to be fired. The lawsuit alleges the corporate continued to place stress on him, for instance by stopping associates who continued to work there from having any contact with him.

Among the displays put ahead in assist of the declare are an e-mail, by which he says, “Boeing has completely destroyed my outlook on life” and his handwritten closing observe, which says “I can’t do this any longer!! Enough!!”

John Barnett labored for Boeing for 32 years.

From 2010, he was employed as a high quality supervisor at Boeing’s manufacturing facility in North Charleston, South Carolina. The facility builds the 787 Dreamliner, a state-of-the-art airliner used primarily on long-haul routes.

During his time on the manufacturing facility, Mr Barnett raised a lot of issues with administration about violations of security procedures, in addition to about defects in plane on the manufacturing line.

He later took his issues to the media. In 2019, he instructed the BBC that:

• under-pressure staff had been intentionally becoming sub-standard components to plane on the manufacturing line
• staff had did not observe procedures meant to trace elements by way of the manufacturing facility, permitting faulty elements to go lacking
• he had uncovered severe issues with oxygen techniques on the 787, which may imply one in 4 respiratory masks wouldn’t work in an emergency

Boeing denied his assertions. However, a 2017 evaluate by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), did uphold a few of Mr Barnett’s issues.

It established that the situation of a minimum of 53 “non-conforming” components within the manufacturing facility was unknown, and that they had been thought of misplaced. Boeing was ordered to take remedial motion.

On the oxygen cylinders difficulty, the corporate stated 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 had been really fitted on plane.

Safety requirements at Boeing have come beneath a harsh highlight since an incident final 12 months by which a disused door panel fell off a model new 737 Max plane shortly after takeoff.

The incident, which got here 5 years after two earlier catastrophic accidents involving the 737 Max, introduced intense scrutiny of the corporate’s high quality management procedures and circumstances within the manufacturing facility.

The firm appointed a brand new chief government final 12 months, trade veteran Kelly Ortberg, and has produced an in depth motion plan to handle issues raised by regulators about points on the manufacturing facility flooring.

In response to the lawsuit being filed, Boeing issued a quick assertion.

“We are saddened by John Barnett’s death and extend our condolences to his family,” it stated.

Previously, nonetheless, the corporate has pushed again towards the allegations made towards 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 additionally drew consideration to a call made earlier in Mr Barnett’s case, in 2020, by which the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration concluded the corporate had not breached whistleblower safety legislation.

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

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