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Dreamliner of the Latam company: Suddenly passengers were thrown through the air

Photo: Brett Phibbs / AFP

John Barnett worked at Boeing as a quality manager and repeatedly publicly criticized the company for production problems.

Now he has been found dead.

Barnett had worked at Boeing for 32 years before leaving the company in 2017, the BBC reports.

The 62-year-old apparently killed himself.

This was confirmed by the Charleston County Coroner's Office in South Carolina.

Charleston City Police are investigating, the department said, without providing further details.

Boeing said in a statement: "We are saddened by the passing of Mr. Barnett and our thoughts are with his family and friends."

Barnett's attorney, Brian Knowles, did not respond to requests for comment.

He told the publication Corporate Crime Reporter that Barnett was in the middle of questioning in a whistleblower trial in Charleston related to the production of the 787 Dreamliner.

Accordingly, he had been questioned in court for several hours the day before.

When it was supposed to continue the following day, he did not show up for the court date.

Hotel staff eventually found his body.

“They just wanted to let the cash register ring.”

Barnett had addressed the media following the Jan. 5 incident on a 737 Max 9 when a panel broke out of the fuselage mid-flight, a life-threatening situation for passengers that required an emergency landing.

He had worked for years in production of the 787 Dreamliner, writes Corporate Crime Reporter, and reported on the problems he had with management at the Charleston factory.

His main criticism: "They started bypassing the procedures, sloppy checking the aircraft configuration and non-conforming parts - they just wanted to throw the planes out the door and let the cash register ring."

Boeing has been struggling with a crisis over its safety and quality standards for a long time, which has since gained momentum.

Production was cut by US authorities, causing delivery delays across the aerospace industry.

Improvement is not in sight.

Just this Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Boeing had failed more than a third of the tests in extensive safety inspections by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

When examining the production process for the 737 Max model, the company failed 33 of 89 tests (you can read the background here).

mamk/Reuters