John Barnett

Documentation and process procedures In 2013, a senior manager downgraded Barnett's employment level for "using email to express process violations" in place of face-to-face communication, which Barnett "took to mean he shouldn't put problems in writing." The manager also pushed Barnett to get better at "working in the gray areas and help find a way while maintaining compliance." Also in April 2024, quality engineer Sam Salehpour reported similar issues after a 2021 delay of the 787 due to unacceptable fuselage gaps. Salehpour claimed that to address the flaws the company took "shortcuts" that forced the gaps closed, instead of engineering new parts. Salehpour has also filed a whistleblower complaint with the FAA against Boeing. A former Boeing mechanic, Davin Fischer, reported similar issues working on the 737. Boeing's chief financial officer, Brian West, stated at a March 2024 investor conference, "For years, we prioritized the movement of the airplane through the factory over getting it done right. And that's got to change."

Use of defective parts and emergency oxygen equipment failure Barnett claimed that, in 2016, a senior manager installed a scrapped, dented hydraulic tube in a plane. He filed a complaint with human resources. Boeing stated that they had investigated and did not substantiate those claims.

In 2017, Barnett's team found that 25% of the oxygen systems for the 787 would fail to send oxygen through the cylinders to passengers in the case of an emergency. Barnett said that his report to management was stonewalled, so he alerted the FAA. Boeing's internal investigation found malfunctioning oxygen masks. In December 2021, the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation released a whistleblower report determining that the FAA failed to administer adequate oversight to address concerns from Boeing and FAA whistleblowers. Boeing had settled a criminal charge with the United States Department of Justice in September that year for conspiracy to defraud the government regarding fatal design flaws in the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System of the 737 Max.

Barnett was featured in the 2022 Netflix documentary Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. A sequel focusing on his death Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing has been released in August 2026.

In early 2024, Barnett issued further warnings regarding Boeing's work culture and vehicle safety following Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, in which a door was blown out.

Death Barnett was in Charleston, South Carolina, the week of March 12, 2024, for his deposition stemming from his 2017 whistleblower complaint against Boeing. Before his death, he had given a deposition and had been undergoing direct examination by his own legal team and cross-examination by Boeing's.

At 9:42am on March 9, a hotel staff member heard a gunshot. At 10am, Barnett's attorney called the hotel asking for a wellness check. He was found dead shortly afterward in the hotel parking lot in his truck, with a single gunshot wound to the head. He had his legally owned pistol in his hand, with his finger still on the trigger, and left a suicide note in the passenger seat, on which he wrote, "I can't do this any longer" and "I pray Boeing pays." Video surveillance showed Barnett left the hotel on the evening of March 8, but returned a few minutes later and re-parked, remaining inside his vehicle. No activity was observed of Barnett or his vehicle until the following morning, on March 9, when at 7:20am the vehicle lights blinked on and off. His vehicle was found to be locked and the key fob was in Barnett's pocket. After requests from the family and Barnett's attorneys, the Charleston Police Department investigated the circumstances that led to his death. and on May 17, they concluded that Barnett's death was a suicide related to chronic stress, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by the whistleblower case.

At the time of his death, he lived in Pineville, Louisiana, Barnett's family said that "he was looking forward to having his day in court and hoped that it would force Boeing to change its culture," and that "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". His attorneys said in a statement after the release of the coroner's report, "Mr. Barnett’s last words make clear that while Boeing may not have pulled the trigger, the company is responsible for his death."

In May 2024, the conspiracy theory Joshua Dean, a former quality inspector for the contractor Spirit AeroSystems, a 2005 Boeing spin-off, checked himself into the hospital after experiencing difficulty breathing from contracting influenza B and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). He died two weeks later (May 1, 2024) after developing pneumonia and suffering a stroke. Dean and other workers at the Wichita, Kansas factory testified that they had been instructed to downplay or hide production defects on the 737 Max, which had a door plug blow off mid-flight in January 2024.

The deaths of Barnett and Dean prompted more than 10 new whistleblowers from Boeing and Spirit to come forward with similar allegations. Santiago Paredes, another Spirit whistleblower, dismissed the conspiracy theories.