Boeing whistleblower found dead in US ( www.bbc.com )

John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.

In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.

Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett’s passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.

It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating.

Malfeasant ,

“self-inflicted” wound

Did he shoot himself in the back of the head? Double tap for good measure?

nadram ,
@nadram@lemmy.world avatar

The right thing to do would be to seize Boeing, take it away from its shareholders, hold and interrogate the major shareholders, and regardless of the outcome of interrogations the company should never return to the public. Either dismantle and sell every pathetic asset, or run it as a public company. This is a no-brainer, they should not be allowed to continue with business as usual even if no one is found guilty or no direct link is established.

4grams ,
@4grams@awful.systems avatar

You are 100% correct, and this same sentence is justified for countless other evil corporations but will similarly never pass. I honestly think biden is our dead cat bounce and regardless if he wins or not, the decline is just ramping up.

hollo ,

When a person is convicted of certain crimes, the government assumes control over their life in the form of imprisonment. Why shouldn’t the same happen to corporations that commit serious offenses? Any argument against this could be applied tenfold to the incarceration of citizens, but I suspect that defenders of criminal corporations don’t have a consistent view in that regard.

Forget identifying the people responsible, forget pleas that they’ll do better, forget fines-- if you demonstrate that you are willing to use your freedom to abuse society, society gets to tell you what to do. Sometimes for a few years, sometimes forever.

Dasus ,

Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett’s passing.

I’m sure they were distraught.

This is something I thought would be on the Onion.

Shadywack , (edited )
@Shadywack@lemmy.world avatar

Deeply saddened by such a tragic loss, and we send our condolences to his family.

Meanwhile, Boeing execs

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e6c0a813-f691-4782-9759-c99c86e452b7.jpeg

Pixlbabble ,

“self-inflicted” ahh huuh

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

He just wandered out to his car and died, bro. In the middle of a deposition. Its actually incredibly normal, bro. Why are you asking all these questions, bro? He just died, okay? Its fine.

thorbot ,

Yeah, he just fell down an elevator shaft… onto some bullets…

turkishdelight ,

The timing is very convenient… for Boeing.

MechaJutaro ,

We should’ve all anticipated the word “self-inflicted” being redefined, once this happened to “safety”, “bullying”, “bigot”, and “weaponize”. “Self-inflicted” now means “His death was hastened along by those who weren’t eager to see him around for much longer”

TheObviousSolution , (edited )

He is the reason some people wants the US to be a bit more like Russia. Yeah, no, this wasn’t a suicide, this was to stop the case that he himself had embarked on a long-running legal action on and that he had been in Charleston for legal interviews for. This stops the case in its tracks.

“John was in the midst of a deposition in his whistleblower retaliation case, which finally was nearing the end,” Knowles and his co-counsel Robert Turkewitz said in a statement to TIME. “He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on. We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it.”

Please don’t reply if you are just going to spam “BuT sUiCiDe”. If that’s false, he’s just another casualty of Boeing. If that’s true, he’s just another casualty of Boeing.

Funny how he takes his own life in an hotel car park, and no one hears it. Let me guess, he also happened to buy the gun and get the gun permit the same day … His anxiety never manifested as suicidal tendencies, and if anything, taking action had decreased it.

nadram ,
@nadram@lemmy.world avatar

Or, this is the reason why the USA already is like Russia… “Suicide by 3 shots in the back then jumped out of the window” kind of scenarios.

TheObviousSolution ,

Some parts of the USA already are, but in pockets. The USA is definitely an oligarchy at this point, but still not a complete autocracy, and there’s still a reasonable amount of trust that an actual investigation will be taking place regarding the circumstances of his death, which means not being able to hire just any sort of hitman for these stints.

prettydarknwild ,
@prettydarknwild@lemmy.world avatar

he commited suicide in a russian fashion

Treczoks ,

What would be the correct expression? Someone has committed this whistleblowers suicide?

bhamlin ,

Suicide implies that he did it to himself. In the absence of enough evidence to say “murder” it’s the best phrase we’ll get.

nadram ,
@nadram@lemmy.world avatar

He was suicided

gardylou ,
@gardylou@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t know why Boeing would wait 6 or 7 years to kill him, right in the middle of his deposition, at the exact moment it would greatly intensify exposure of the story.

I hope people focus on the facts he was sharing-- that Boeing was taking safety shortcuts and ignoring clear risks to keep production deadlines–and what that means about possible risks to the millions of Americans that fly, not fall off into conspiracy land.

Cthulu_but_gay ,

Truly only Americans are at risk because of their actions, astute observation there

logi ,

Only Americans are real people. Is there a community for quotes like this?

mods_are_assholes ,

Pretty sure no one at the top of boeing cares about anything other than the next quarter, and that mentality is exactly the one that would panic and pull the trigger.

They didn’t kill him for 6 or 7 years because boeings weren’t falling apart in the air back then. Now that its in the news they knew his testimony would sink them, so they made a gamble.

nadram ,
@nadram@lemmy.world avatar

It took a while for them to preemptively buy their way out of the assassination

BackOnMyBS ,
@BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world avatar

to make an example so others dont blow the whistle

EmperorHenry ,
@EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Ah yes, “found dead” like the people who reported on the Panama papers “died in car accidents”

in4aPenny ,

And they get away with it because we let them. We have proven time and time again that we’ll do nothing, so they’ll keep doing it.

agitatedpotato ,

The difference between terrorism and revolution is critical mass of supporters. If it was as easy as taking to the streets with guns I imagine more of the left would do it. We only have to look as far back as 2019 to Willem van Spronsen to see you’d likely just die in vain. Until then, train, agitate, and organize.

in4aPenny ,

If it was as easy as taking to the streets with guns I imagine more of the left would do it.

I mean, isn’t that how lefty commies defeated the Nazi’s? Never said it was easy, but they got there in the end, and there’s still more work to be done it would seem. We got numbers on our side, $32.6trillion worth of them wouldn’t even fill up a single 737 airplane.

EmperorHenry ,
@EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

No, WE don’t let them for forbid them from doing anything.

Those corporate jackoffs are the ones that control everything. All our elections are just for show.

in4aPenny ,

These corporate jackoffs also have names and addresses, just sayin’. They’re only as untouchable as we let them be, and they’re terrified of the fact that we’re waking up to that (hence the bunkers n shit). They’re like “Nuh uh” and we’re like “Oh ok then” and give them our lunch money, their power is equal to that of a bully making rules on the playground, we just need to grow the fuck up.

cabron_offsets ,

Seems legit.

EatATaco ,

ITT: The equivalent of Trump supporters confusing the fact that they are suspicious that the election was stolen, with actually knowing so.

thesporkeffect ,

Well, Boeing is demonstrably willing, even determined, to choose financial short term gain over any amount of human lives or reputation loss. It would be shocking if it was truly an accident that saved Boeing from a second day of testimony right when everything is starting to really fall apart for them, right?

EatATaco ,

Notice how you haven’t offered up any evidence. Just motivation to kill him (even that’s tenuous at best).

You know what Trump supporters often argue? That the “deep state” had motive to stop Trump from becoming POTUS, which is what makes their claims reasonable.

In this case, you’re acting just like them.

thesporkeffect ,

I don’t disagree with you. But evidence of Boeing being willing to trade lives for profit is super, super easy to find right now. If you aren’t being disingenuous I am willing to do some of the labor you are asking for

EatATaco ,

You are just justifying being suspicious. I’m suspicious too. You don’t need to convince me of rhay.

But it’s 100% possible for them to be willing to kill him but he still killed himself. Right now I’ve seen no evidence that they did it. It’s all blind speculation.

thesporkeffect ,

I didn’t say they did although I would personally place it at like a 60% likelihood. Obviously there’s no evidence, this literally just happened.

Just wanted to be clear that I live in reality and no one has the security camera footage yet.

EatATaco ,

I didn’t say they did

t would be shocking if it was truly an accident that saved Boeing from a second day of testimony right when everything is starting to really fall apart for them, right?

Say it? No. But you certainly implied it.

I would personally place it at like a 60% likelihood.

Which is based on suspicion alone. That’s my point.

mods_are_assholes ,

Exactly what evidence are you expecting random people on the internet to dig up?

EatATaco , (edited )

I’m expecting random people on the Internet not to dog up evidence, but to accept that their suspicions are just that, and without evidence you can’t call it likely the truth or pretend you know what happened.

You know, basic critical thinking.

mods_are_assholes ,

No, that’s called letting other people think for you, but if that’s what you consider critical thinking, then I know who you voted for.

EatATaco ,

Holy shit you just argued that basing your opinions on the facts, instead of your own prejudices, not only isn’t critical thought, but letting people think for you.

Amazing.

blazera ,
@blazera@lemmy.world avatar

I’d say it’s more like a huge percentage of votes for one candidate got lost in a fire. Sure fires happen, but it was really important that this one should be protected from happening.

ChaoticEntropy ,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

I’m not going to say that Boeing had this guy directly killed, but I can certainly see them and their legal team explicitly trying to make his life as hellish as possible until he felt that he only had one way out. Legal threats if you stop proceeding with your case, legals threats if you don’t, they want a terrible warning for any other whistleblowers.

vjxtdibobyd ,

Isn’t that exactly what happened to Aaron Schwartz? Not a whistleblower, but similar tactics

ShepherdPie ,

Yes the FBI wanted to make an example out of him for the crime of downloading research papers from a service he had legitimate access to. Even JSTOR thought the prosecution was absurd and didn’t want anything to do with it.

mods_are_assholes ,

I’m fully expecting to learn in a decade or so that spez was behind it using his family connections to push out the one person dedicated to keeping reddit from becoming a profit machine.

Adulated_Aspersion ,

This is “falling out of a window or down an elevator shaft in Russia”-level blatant.

This appears very loud and clear to any other potential whistle-blowers.

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

You forgot blown-up plane. For Boeing it is super easy.

Welt ,

Yes, a prominent manufacturer is likely to publicly destroy their product to target one person, rather than simply have their lawyers and accountants make life as difficult as possible for this person.

deaf_fish ,

They seem to be just fine publicly destroying their products for better stock prices.

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