A model of Boeing 737 MAX airplane.
Credit: Reuters Photo
62-year-old former Boeing employee John Barnett has been found dead in the US, which comes days after he gave evidence against the company's production management.
Barnett worked at Boeing for 32 years and retired in 2017 due to some health concerns.
BBC reported that the Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to them and Boeing, in a statement, has said that they are deeply saddened with the news. Barnett, since 2010, had worked at the North Charleston plant as a quality manager.
The Charleston County coroner told the publication that Barnett died due to a "self-inflicted" would on March 9.
In an earlier interaction with BBC in 2019, Barnett had revealed issues in Boeing's aircraft production system.
"Under pressure workers deliberately fit sub-standard parts to aircraft on the production" and there are "serious problems with the oxygen system", which means that during an emergency, one in four oxygen masks won't work, he told the publication.
Barnett also said that the assembly process was "rushed", and safety of the passengers was compromised. Adding on he said that workers did not follow the factory procedures which lead to ignorance of defective components go missing.
"In some cases, sub-standard parts had even been removed from scrap bins and fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays on the production line," he told the BBC.
Even after informing the managers about the issues, there was reportedly no action taken for it.
Boeing had then denied all of his allegations.
In 2017, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), listened to his concerns and found out that at least 53 "non-conforming" parts were missing, and some oxygen cylinders were not "deploying properly", BBC reported.
In January 2024, a door panel of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet flew away right after takeoff, ringing proverbial alarm bells across the world over the build quality of its aircraft lines.