What We Know After Death of Joshua Dean, Second Boeing Whistleblower to Die in Two Months
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For the second time in as many months, a Boeing whistleblower died unexpectedly in the spring of 2024.
On March 9, 2024, former Boeing employee John Barnett was found dead in Charleston, South Carolina. Then on May 1, 2024, The Seattle Times reported that Joshua Dean, who worked for Boeing contractor Spirit AeroSystems, had died the previous day after a “struggle with a sudden, fast-spreading infection.” Both men had publicly complained about safety lapses and mismanagement in the companies.
Some readers reacted with allegations of a sinister plot:
This is a conspiracy theory in the truest sense of the phrase. The timing of the two deaths, given recent scandals at Boeing related to aircraft safety and the general lack of faith in large U.S. corporations, create a dark explanation that’s easy to suggest but hard to prove.
So here’s what we know to date about those deaths. We’ll update this story with more information as it becomes available.
John Barnett
Snopes previously reported on Barnett’s death. To briefly recap:
Barnett, who was 62 when he died, worked at Boeing for over 30 years and first filed a whistleblower complaint against his employer in 2017. In 2019, Barnett spoke to the BBC and The New York Times about safety concerns he had with Boeing’s production of the 787 Dreamliner airplane, which he said the company’s management routinely ignored.
In the days leading up to his death, Barnett was providing a deposition about Boeing’s safety lapses in Charleston, South Carolina. He was discovered dead in his car from what the Charleston coroner’s office called a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
A Boeing spokesperson told Snopes the following via email:
We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing and our thoughts continue to be with his family and friends. Boeing reviewed and addressed quality issues that Mr. Barnett raised before he retired in 2017, as well as other quality issues referred to in the complaint. Engineering analysis determined the issues he raised did not affect airplane safety.
Joshua Dean
Dean, who was 45 at the time of his death, did not work for Boeing directly. He worked for Spirit AeroSystems, the Boeing contractor linked to manufacturing defects in the Boeing 737 MAX plane.
According to several credible news outlets, including NPR, The Seattle Times and CBS News, Dean, a quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, initially reported a problem to management in October 2022. Holes in the bulkhead of the 737 MAX had been improperly drilled, he said, and might lead to depressurization of the plane’s cabin while in flight.
In April 2023, Boeing and Spirit announced a separate manufacturing defect in the 737 MAX, related to fittings on the tail fin. Spirit fired Dean later that month. In his deposition, Dean claimed that he might have missed the tail fin problem because he was focused on the bulkhead problem he had previously identified.
In August 2023, 10 months after Dean initially reported his concerns about the bulkhead holes to supervisors, Boeing publicly reported the defect. Dean filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over those issues in the latter half of 2023, claiming that Spirit had fired him as a scapegoat. He also filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Labor, which was ongoing at the time of his death, according to news reports.
Then in January 2024, a door plug on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX blew off mid-flight. Spirit installed that door plug. One of Dean’s coworkers confirmed some of his allegations not long after.
On April 21, 2024, Dean, whom his family described as a “health nut” and someone who didn’t have a regular doctor because he was never sick, checked himself into an urgent care because he was having trouble breathing. He quickly found himself in a hospital: He tested positive for Influenza B then developed MRSA followed by pneumonia and may have had a stroke. By April 30, he was dead.
Snopes reached out to Spirit AeroSystems for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
The Conspiracy
The theory that the two deaths were more than coincidental did not begin after Dean died — Barnett’s apparent suicide in the middle of a deposition was suspicious enough for some online to claim that Boeing had ordered his assassination. While Dean died of an infection, the fact that he went from being in very good health to barely holding on to life in the course of two weeks only amplified the theory that something was at play behind the scenes.
Brian Knowles, an attorney who represented both Barnett and Dean, called them “heroes” in the New York Post. Knowles also told Time magazine that he did not want to speculate on the two whistleblower’s deaths:
“I would like to see the evidence from the investigating authorities.” But, he adds, “what society does not need is people in fear to speak up.”
Charleston police are still investigating Barnett’s death. Dean’s mother has requested an autopsy to determine exactly what her son died from, but those results could take months.
Meanwhile, the FAA announced on May 6, 2024, that it had opened an additional investigation into Boeing over concerns that the manufacturer had skipped some inspections on the 787 Dreamliner and falsified records.
Sources:
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Boeing Supplier That Made Alaska Airlines Door Plug Was Warned of “Defects” with Other Parts, Lawsuit Claims – CBS News. 10 Jan. 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/boeing-loose-bolts-alaska-airlines-united-airlines-spirit-aerosystems-door-plug/.
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