How Boeing whistleblower died from ‘self-inflicted gunshot wound’ after raising safety fears at Dreamliner factory

A Boeing whistleblower found dead last year had raised safety concerns about the US factory that makes the Dreamliner plane that went down in the Ahmedabad air disaster.  

John Barnett alleged that second-rate parts were removed from bins before being fitted to planes that were being built in order to prevent delays. 

The engineer claimed there was a risk the decision could cause an explosion that would ‘bring the whole plane down’. 

He also alleged that Boeing had tried to ‘eliminate’ quality checks at the factory where he worked in North Carolina, which builds the 787 Dreamliner.

Mr Barnett accused the company of ‘countless’ violations of US law including use of sub-standard parts to prevent production line delays. He also alleged paperwork was knowingly falsified.

He died in March 2024 at the age of 62. He was found dead in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina – seven years after he retired following a 32-year career with Boeing. 

The Charleston County coroner said he was shot and had died from a ‘self-inflicted’ wound. 

But a close friend had claimed that before he died Barnett had warned her that he would be killed and said: ‘If anything happens to me, it’s not suicide.’

Barnett, who was found dead last year, had alleged that second-rate parts were literally removed from scrap bins, before being fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays

Boeing’s assembly plant in North Charleston – where the deceased worked for decades – is seen here. It is where the 787 Dreamliner is built

The Air India flight bound for London Gatwick carrying 244 passengers and crew including 53 Britons crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport today

His former employer responded to the former worker’s death last year, saying it was ‘saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing.’

But Boeing also insisted but said that the issues that he raised had been addressed.

‘Engineering analysis determined the issues he raised did not affect aeroplane safety’, the company said in a statement. 

Barnett’s job for 32 years was overseeing production standards for the firm’s planes – standards he said were not met during his four years at the then-new plant in Charleston from 2010 to 2014.

The 62-year-old was found in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina, – seven years after he retired following a 32-year career with Boeing

‘The new leadership didn’t understand processes,’ Barnett told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview in 2019 of how brass allegedly cut corners to get their then state-of-the-art 7878s out on time.

‘They brought them in from other areas of the company,’ he continued, two years after retiring in 20017. 

‘The new leadership team – from my director down – they all came from St. Louis, Missouri. They said they were all buddies there.’

‘That entire team came down,’ he went on. ‘They were from the military side. My impression was their mindset was – we are going to do it the way we want to do it. Their motto at the time was – we are in Charleston and we can do anything we want.

‘They started pressuring us to not document defects, to work outside the procedures, to allow defective material to be installed without being corrected. 

‘They started bypassing procedures and not maintaining configurement control of airplanes, not maintaining control of non conforming parts – they just wanted to get the planes pushed out the door and make the cash register ring’.

He claimed that tests on emergency oxygen systems due to be fitted to the 787 had a one in four chance of failure in an emergency.

Barnett claimed he alerted superiors at the plant about his misgivings, but no action was ever taken. Boeing denied this, as well as his claims.

A 2017 review by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) went on to stand up some of Barnett’s qualms, including finding that at least 53 ‘non-conforming’ parts – as they put it – were misplaced, and considered lost. 

The Air India flight bound for London Gatwick carrying 244 passengers and crew including 53 Britons crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport today in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat.

The plane, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, careened back to earth in the densely populated Meghani area of the city just minutes after leaving the runway around 1pm local time.

Shocking images shared to social media showed chunks of the plane’s fuselage and tail protruding from a demolished building.

Parts of the jet smashed into accommodation for doctors practising at the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital.

Remnants of the fuselage and the landing gear were seen dangling through a gaping hole in the side of what appeared to be a canteen, with half-finished plates of food clearly visible on benches inside.

‘The building on which it has crashed is a doctors’ hostel… we have cleared almost 70% to 80% of the area and will clear the rest soon,’ a senior police officer told reporters at the scene.

Firefighters doused the smouldering piles of debris with their hoses as photos and videos taken by horrified residents in Meghani showed plumes of thick black smoke emanating from the crash site.

Emergency services are working fervently to locate survivors, but the scale of the damage displayed in early images suggests there are likely significant casualties.

A video posted to social media appeared to show the plane descending in a controlled manner with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed

Parts of the jet appeared to have smashed into the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital

Remnants of the fuselage and the landing gear were seen dangling through a gaping hole in the side of what appeared to be a canteen, with half-finished plates of food clearly visible on benches inside

The plane careened back to earth in the densely populated Meghani area of the city just minutes after leaving the runway around 1pm local time

hFirefighters work at the site where Air India flight 171 crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025

India’s Health Ministry confirmed that ‘many were killed’, but did not provide further details. 

As of 11:30am UK time, at least 30 bodies have been recovered from buildings damaged in the crash, rescue personnel at the site said.

The cause of the tragedy is not yet known, but footage appeared to show the plane descending in a controlled manner with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed.

It momentarily disappeared from view behind trees and buildings before a massive fireball erupted on the horizon. The jet was fuelled for a long-haul flight direct to Gatwick, intensifying the blast.

The flight reportedly reached an altitude of just 625 feet before it began to descend, according to flight tracking service Flightradar 24, which declared the plane’s transponder signal dropped just seconds after it left the runway.

‘We received the last signal from the aircraft at 08:08:51 UTC, just seconds after take off,’ it said.

Air India’s flight manifest said there were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, one Canadian and seven Portuguese nationals on board the stricken jet.

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the plane sent a mayday call moments before the crash.

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