A wrongful death lawsuit is trying to hold Boeing accountable — one year after a former employee and whistleblower was found dead in Charleston, South Carolina.
62-year-old John Barnett was found dead inside his truck outside with a gunshot wound to his head on March 9, 2024.
Barnett had previously worked for Boeing for 32 years. According to the lawsuit, he filed a whistleblower complaint with the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) against Boeing for safety concerns at the Charleston facility and for unlawfully retaliating against him in 2017.
Barnett was about to start litigation for lawsuits he filed against the company last summer when he died.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Barnett’s estate representatives, including family members. It accuses the company of driving Barnett to his death by suicide after suffering repeated retaliation, a hostile work environment, and bullying.
The documents filed today allege that Barnett’s senior manager once told him, “I’m going to push you until you break.”
A letter left by Barnett before his death was attached to the documents, with the lawsuit alleging, “As he was taking his life three years later, John left a note underscoring the depths to which Boeing’s conduct had driven him. Whether or not Boeing intended to drive John to his 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, panic attacks, and anxiety, which would in turn lead to an elevated risk of suicide. Boeing may not have pulled the trigger, but Boeing’s conduct was the clear cause, and the clear foreseeable cause, of John’s death.”
KIRO 7 reached out to Boeing for comment, their response: “We are saddened by John Barnett’s death and extend our condolences to his family.”
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