John Barnett, a former Boeing quality control manager who blew the whistle on numerous safety issues in the airplane manufacturer's production process, was found dead in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 9, 2024 from a gunshot wound to the head.
The news was reported by numerous reputable news outlets, including the BBC, whom Barnett talked to about safety lapses in the production process in 2019. The same year, Barnett also talked to The New York Times about lapses in the production of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.
According to the BBC and NPR, Charleston police are investigating to determine the cause of Barnett's death, but the coroner's office said in a statement that the gunshot wound appeared to be self-inflicted.
Barnett's attorney, Brian Knowles, told Corporate Crime Reporter that Barnett was in Charleston for a deposition in an ongoing whistleblower lawsuit about safety concerns in Boeing's North Charleston factory. Barnett, 62, had been providing evidence in the days before Saturday, when he failed to show up and was discovered dead.
The fact that Barnett died in the middle of providing testimony against Boeing sparked an easy-to-intuit conspiracy theory that quickly spread across social media.