U.S. NEWS
Video of Boeing engineers goes viral - “I wouldn’t fly on one of these planes”
After Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead in his truck, this video from 2014 of Boeing engineers on the 787 Dreamliner, has gone viral.
Back in 2014, a documentary called “Broken Dreams: The Boeing 787″ revealed secret footage of Boeing engineers saying they wouldn’t fly on the aircraft they were working on, the flagship product, 787 Dreamliner. That video has gone viral in the wake of the death of John Barnett.
Barnett was a 62-year-old former Boeing employee of 32 years, but after retiring in 2017, he revealed concerns about the quality of the planes. He has now been found dead in his truck with apparent self-inflicted gun shot wounds just days after missing a legal trial in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.
In 2010, Barnett worked as a quality manager at a plant making the 787 Dreamliner. In 2019, he revealed that the employees worked under pressure to get the planes out quickly and that the parts were low quality, with serious problems in the oxygen systems. Amongst other concerns, he said that tests on the emergency oxygen systems failed 25% of the time. He also said he’d voiced these concerns to managers, but that no one had done a thing. Boeing denied the accusations, but a review conducted in 2017 by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found that at least 53 “non-conforming” parts in the factory had been lost.
At the time of his death, Barnett was in Charleston for interviews about the case against Boeing, but did not return for questioning on Saturday. That’s when he was eventually found dead inside his car in the parking lot of the hotel in which he was staying.
The Boeing brand has been under intense scrutiny lately after several incidents, including one in January when an emergency exit door flew off a brand new Boeing 737 Max in Portland. The US National Transportation Safety Board found that the bolts in the door were not properly fitted. Just last week, the FAA reported that there had been “multiple instances where the company allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements” after conducting a six-week audit.