Harrison Kilgore, '26
Boeing airplanes are often considered a key example of American innovation and quality. But, recently, they have been crumbling regarding both market share and flight. Their planes have been losing doors and wheels mid-flight in January of this year. In one extreme case in 2021, an engine fell off on a flight from Denver to Hawaii, causing an emergency landing. The engine landed in a neighborhood in Colorado without any injuries. If this had happened a few hours later, the passengers could have been over water or another residential area, and people could have died.
With all this happening in the last five years, someone had to know what was happening, right? John Barnett, a retired quality control manager in the North Charleston plant, supposedly knew everything happening in the company. He allegedly filed years of complaints with the company about the quality of parts and manufacturers. He claimed that they would use scrap parts when they needed to catch up on a deadline and that they were often rushed and not left with the best final product. He said that in some tests on the emergency oxygen system, there was a failure rate of 25%. He not only provided numerous complaints to the company but also kept a detailed journal with dates and times of grievances. After consulting with lawyers, he filed a lawsuit against Boeing on May 4th, 2021, in Charleston, SC.
He was deposed for the lawsuit one month ago, and the lawyers said they had never seen such a prepared witness. He also had backing from the Federal Aviation Administration. While he was working for Boeing, the FAA mirrored his complaints when they were doing a checkup on the company. Just as things were ramping up, the unspeakable happened. The day before the trial was set, John Barnett died alone in his home with no one around him.
This sparked ideas of foul play surrounding his death, even though the police later determined it was a suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Boeing stated they were shocked and saddened by the incident. Since then, many executives at Boeing have stepped down. His family believed his death was certainly a result of PTSD from a hostile work environment. When one zooms out completely, this lawsuit could have ended a 100 billion dollar company. Period. Yet, the star witness died. Since the lawsuit cannot proceed without a plaintiff, Boeing is seemingly out of the hot water and in a recoverable state, based solely on luck.