The grieving family of the Boeing whistleblower who was found dead in his truck has made shocking claims against the aviation company.
John Barnett, 62, was found dead inside his truck outside a Holiday Inn in Charleston, South Carolina, in March 2024 - just days before he was set to testify in a lawsuit against Boeing, his former employer.
Now, his family is suing the aerospace giant, alleging that the company’s treatment of Barnett directly led to his suicide.
The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in federal court in South Carolina, accuses Boeing of relentlessly harassing and intimidating Barnett after he went public with safety concerns tied to its 787 Dreamliner facility in Charleston.
“Boeing may not have pulled the trigger,” the suit reads, “but Boeing’s conduct was the clear cause, and the clear foreseeable cause, of John’s death," cited by The Guardian.
Barnett had spent nearly three decades working as a quality manager at Boeing. During that time, he raised serious alarms over safety issues, including the presence of metal shavings near crucial control wiring and flaws in the aircraft’s oxygen systems.
After taking early retirement in 2017, while reportedly battling depression and severe anxiety, Barnett stepped into the public eye as a whistleblower, sharing his experiences with journalists.
According to the lawsuit, Boeing retaliated with what the family describes as a calculated “campaign of harassment, abuse, and intimidation intended to discourage, discredit and humiliate him until he would either give up or be discredited".
The family claims the company deliberately gave Barnett poor performance reviews, assigned him to unpopular shifts, and pinned operational delays on him, moves that isolated him from his peers and blocked his transfer requests.
“Boeing had threatened to break John, and break him it did,” the filing states.
Barnett’s family is seeking damages for pecuniary loss, mental suffering, and grief, as well as punitive damages and funeral and burial expenses. They have also requested a jury trial.
The lawsuit suit states that "whether or not Boeing intended to drive John to his death or merely destroy his ability to function, it was absolutely foreseeable that PTSD and John’s unbearable depression, panic attacks, and anxiety … would in turn lead to an elevated risk of suicide".
Boeing, which has faced ongoing scrutiny after the fatal crashes of two 737 Max aircraft and a recent mid-air door panel blowout, acknowledged Barnett’s death in a statement, which read: “We are saddened by John Barnett’s death and extend our condolences to his family.”
The company has not issued further comment regarding the lawsuit.
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