A former Boeing executive who raised safety questions about the plane maker and was found dead after several days of depositions in South Carolina took his own life, police said Friday after completing their investigation.
John Barnett, 62, of Louisiana, was found dead on March 9 and police had previously said his injuries were self-inflicted.
Barnett was a longtime employee of Boeing, working as a quality control manager before retiring in 2017. In the years that followed, he shared his concerns with journalists.
Barnett said he saw discarded metal shavings near the flight controls wiring, which could have severed the wiring and caused a catastrophe. He also noticed problems with a quarter of the oxygen systems on Boeing’s 787 planes.
“Information and records examined during the investigation revealed Mr. Barnett’s long-standing mental health problems, which had increased in connection with the ongoing legal proceedings related to his whistleblowing case,” police said in a statement.
Barnett was in Charleston to answer questions for depositions on his whistleblower complaint, and a hearing on the case was scheduled for June.
