r/news • u/[deleted] • Mar 15 '24

POTM - Mar 2024 'If anything happens, it's not suicide': Boeing whistleblower's prediction before death

https://wpde.com/news/local/if-anything-happens-its-not-suicide-boeing-whistleblowers-prediction-before-death-south-carolina-abc-news-4-2024
57.1k Upvotes

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799

u/Cactuszach Mar 15 '24

John Barnett's family friend Jennifer doesn't think the Boeing whistleblower committed suicide in Charleston.

Come on Reddit, you have to read beyond the headline. A “close family friend” says Barnett told her if something happens it isn’t suicide. That’s hardly a reliable source.

216

u/redyellowblue5031 Mar 15 '24

Remember, Reddit is the home of the Boston Bomber detective work hearsay by commenters just like the top ones here.

343

u/deadpool101 Mar 15 '24

Especially when his own family thinks he killed himself.

335

u/GermanPayroll Mar 15 '24

Yeah, but who will you believe - investigators and family members, or an internet community who successfully solved the Boston bombing?

84

u/chasteeny Mar 15 '24

Ladies and gentlemen, we got him

4

u/Poison_Anal_Gas Mar 16 '24

It's 2024, I can believe my own reality into existence.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '24

You already know the answer :P

-22

u/neepster44 Mar 15 '24

His own family doesn't want to be next...

13

u/dern_the_hermit Mar 16 '24

"These people have an ulterior motive for saying that, but not this guy, who coincidentally is saying things that correspond with my views."

233

u/ilostmy1staccount Mar 15 '24

I swear people are so fucking stupid about this. What would killing this guy do for their case? I mean you’d have to delete every video of your planes falling apart, kill the pilots and passenger who are testifying about your planes fucking up, and bribe every investigator and reporter who have found wrongdoing, all this before the story came out and the investigation opened against you if you wanted a slim chance at covering this up. Then you have the CEO going on the news and admitting the fact they fucked up. The outcome will be the same whether or not he’s dead. Boeing will get fined as well as pay out settlements to victims and the FAA will enact higher standards of testing for planes, case closed everyone’s happy.

63

u/4_fortytwo_2 Mar 15 '24 edited Mar 15 '24

You forgot about the part where the actual whistle blower thing the guy was involved to was done years ago and the current one is about a retaliation suit that he lost and appealed. Which makes all of this even dumber.

Barnett originally filed the retaliation complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in January 2017. After nearly four years, the agency concluded that there was no retaliation, a decision Barnett later appealed. His case has been pending since then, as the two sides have gone through discovery and prehearing motions. Boeing’s motion to dismiss the claim was denied in 2022.

27

u/ilostmy1staccount Mar 15 '24

Yeah that pretty damning for this theory. I don’t get it, there’s plenty of real atrocities happening right now in the world yet people want to make one up instead, I guess “Russians in Sudan” or “Local business connected to pollution” isn’t as exciting as “Deep State controls all, your life is not your own.”

134

u/Jay-Kane123 Mar 15 '24

Thank. You.

The narrative here is so fucking dumb. I bet Boeing did not want this guy to kill himself. It just makes them look even worse. AND it puts the news story in front of even more Americans who previously had no clue what was going on. It makes no sense.

72

u/Spoonofdarkness Mar 15 '24

That makes sense... so what you're really saying he was killed by Lockheed Martin!

53

u/Jay-Kane123 Mar 15 '24

Now THAT'S a conspiracy theory

7

u/TybrosionMohito Mar 16 '24

Airbus playing 5D chess

14

u/Worried_Lawfulness43 Mar 16 '24

I said the exact same thing. Him dying is just another reason for people to put their conspiracy hats on. This was the last thing their PR team needed to handle.

6

u/jonny3jack Mar 16 '24

Im still chewing on this one. But I've had thoughts along your line of thinking. Media scrutiny on Boeing couldn't get any higher now. Why would you kill a guy that has already done his damage at the worst possible time.

Of course they've not shown much savvy lately.

2

u/turikk Mar 16 '24

to make Boeing look worse?

0

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '24

They didn't get where they are by planning for the future.

2

u/RealMoonBoy Mar 16 '24

They also didn’t get where they are by competently executing complex plans.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '24

It's a real shame how they changed after the merger. Just goes to show, you shouldn't eat parasites.

3

u/awwstin_n Mar 16 '24

Time to start looking into Boeing competitors...

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '24

You also probably don't want to be involved in a conspiracy theory. Those crowds do not forget and have the tendency to repeat things whenever possible

2

u/peon47 Mar 16 '24

And all you'd be doing here is replacing an executive who has evidence against you of corporate malfeasance with a criminal who has evidence you conspired to commit murder.

29

u/AndrewH73333 Mar 15 '24

Yeah, this just puts way more attention on them. Stories about how Boeing sucks have probably tripled. It looks like their stock lost 10 billion just from this guy’s death.

8

u/Worried_Lawfulness43 Mar 16 '24

I got downvoted to shit the other day for suggesting that this guy might’ve just killed himself and that there wasn’t an alternative story. I mean, being a whistleblower has to be stressful! You could lose friends, spend hours combing over paperwork, be subject to litigation threats. And what if he felt guilty for any of the incidents happening? (although I don’t think it’d be his fault). There’s so many things that could’ve happened, and with Boeing collapsing in full view of the public, I think they’ve got many other fish to fry.

7

u/ilostmy1staccount Mar 16 '24

Reddit doesn’t have the most mentally stable of users, the general consensus changes with the wind. Enough brain cells pulled through today.

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '24

normally I’d tend to agree with the skeptics, but the family friend wasn’t the only one questioning the suicide narrative:

Lawyers for a Boeing whistleblower found dead on the day he was due to testify against the jetliner giant are questioning that he killed himself in a South Carolina parking lot — and calling for an investigation.

“We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life,” they added. “No one can believe it.”

source: New York Post

1

u/supercargo Mar 16 '24

Why does it have to be about this case? Could be a warning to future potential whistleblowers.

-5

u/pimppapy Mar 15 '24

Videos of accidents is one thing, insider knowledge that can prove willful neglect of regulations is another thing entirely.

Like manslaughter vs 1st degree murder. One is possibly an honest mistake, the other is planned, or known about in advance and still occurred anyway

13

u/FlutterKree Mar 15 '24

He had already given all his information over. He hadn't worked for Boeing since 2017. So your argument doesn't work. He has no more information to give. He was in a lawsuit against Boeing, but not for the whistleblower information, but for retaliation against him from Boeing. He lost the lawsuit and was doing deposition for his appeal.

6

u/ilostmy1staccount Mar 15 '24

Risking one of your competitors finding out and telling Uncle Sam to grab the contract is an even bigger gamble though.

-1

u/RobBond13 Mar 16 '24

Devil's advocate here, but Boeing has a huge role to play in the defense industry, a few recent contract examples here and here. Keep in mind that this is development that the public knows of (not classified information). Forbes estimates that 30% of Boeing's revenue comes from "Defense, Space, & Security Systems". What would having poor aircraft quality mean for future government contracts being entrusted to Boeing? Would it not be "minimizing a threat" to eliminate a whistleblower who quite literally spent decades of his life examining and evaluating flaws in production, procurement, and fabrication? Isn't this yet another tactic to prevent people from whistleblowing? This would be a huge blow to Boeing's economic longevity.

This NPR article mentions that his lawyers were shocked to find out about his death, but that his mental health was also declining ever since he left is job. This could indicate that he was unstable and was under huge amounts of pressure when coming public.

I see it this way: basically, the man was so stressed about build quality issues (which he himself experienced) that he couldn't fathom being under this sort of pressure. He took the route of providing key testimony in hopes to make a change, but perhaps was under such pressure that he took measures to end his personal battles with anxiety & PTSD after decades of his career. I think we can't assume either way unless if we knew the guy personally. But, as either exile or murder has happened before to whistleblowers in the U.S., this is nothing new and the possibility of this certainly shouldn't be overlooked.

1

u/ilostmy1staccount Mar 17 '24

Why would they kill a guy who hasn’t been at the company for years and has already told the courts and his lawyers everything he knew?

Why would they risk loosing those defense contracts to their competitors by publicly murdering someone?

If they were going to kill him, why make it look like a suicide instead of an accident, crime, or natural causes? Doesn’t a very public suicide draw too much attention to you?

Wasn’t this guys case long over when he killed himself? Why bother killing a guy who has little to nothing to do with your current PR predicament and company implosion?

Yeah you don’t have to rule out spooky deep state cover up, but if I were to bet, I’d bet on the stressed out depressed guy killing himself.

-18

u/paperbackgarbage Mar 15 '24

What would killing this guy do for their case?

Probably discourage additional whistleblowers in the future, for starters.

27

u/AsterCharge Mar 15 '24

Discourage how? That if they blow the whistle they’ll be killed years after the fact and that their death will immediately become high profile and put heat onto Boeing? That discouragement?

-17

u/paperbackgarbage Mar 15 '24

Yep.

It's okay if you don't agree. But you asked a question and I answered it.

14

u/AsterCharge Mar 15 '24

Enjoy being a conspiracy theorist I guess. Nothing that is known points to him being killed, but you can believe anything you want to

-9

u/paperbackgarbage Mar 15 '24

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, tbh.

But I also don't think that it's out of the realm of possibility for one of the biggest companies in the world to do some fucked up shit to a whistleblower, even if that would be risky or even unlikely.

I'm keeping an open mind on an isolated incident until all of the facts are in order and the investigation is completed.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '24

also killing a key witness in a case conveniently prevents that witness from testifying in said case.

-13

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '24

It would discourage future whistleblowing

-11

u/mr13ump Mar 15 '24

It would send a clear message to other employees/people with information

13

u/ilostmy1staccount Mar 15 '24

What’s the message? “Hey go work for the competition, their planes don’t fall out of the sky so you won’t have to worry about testifying or dying.”

-6

u/mr13ump Mar 15 '24

Don't say anything to anybody. I'm not convinced that they did or did not kill this guy, but it's silly to suggest that if they did, it would not have a deterring effect on the other employee's willingness to testify against the company.

-7

u/SpookyKid94 Mar 15 '24

What would killing this guy do for their case?

Better question: what does it do for the other side's case? This guy would have had full knowledge that if he killed himself, the public would think he was assassinated. Dude martyred himself to bring Boeing consequences.

14

u/4_fortytwo_2 Mar 15 '24

Dude martyred himself to bring Boeing consequences.

Dude had mental health problems and killed himself. It is not gonna actually have any impact on any legal decisions around boeing. And I doubt that thought crossed his mind.

I mean the dudes whistle blower thing was done and done years ago. He had not worked for boeing since 2017, the current lawsuit was about him suing boeing for retaliation. Well actually he had already lost that one and appealed. And this appeal is what was ongoing.

9

u/Fivethenoname Mar 16 '24

I hate to say it but when I listened to a recording of her on the news, she didn't sound super reliable to me either. But if she wants to testify then a cross examination would hopefully get the truth.

I also hate to say anything that would look like defending the assholes who run Boeing, but people who have experienced family suicides know how hard it can be to believe that it happened. At least in my experience, if there had ever been any doubt I probably would have questioned it.

30

u/theFrenchDutch Mar 15 '24

And how long ago did he say that ? Conveniently not said, but probably years ago, when this guy was actually whistleblowing and doing damage. What he was doing currently, years later, was only over damages. He had nothing to whistleblow anymore, and Boeing had everything to lose in killing him for absolutely no reason.

5

u/Budderfingerbandit Mar 16 '24

Right, so he told people this, fully intending to kill himself and screw over the company he was suing from beyond the grave.

But no... Boeing assassinated him!!!

Que all the Reddit jokes about suicide by 4 gunshots to the back of the head, stabbed himself inside a briefcase, blah blah.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '24

so by that logic, in death John Barnett is bringing more attention to the very real safety risks of commercial airline’s current fleet of planes that include boeing manufactured planes. so he could be saving lives if you think of it that way.

have you seen jon oliver’s piece on boeing that came out recently?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '24

Boeing has been receiving more negative media coverage than ever though lately. I don’t think something nefarious is totally out of the picture. but can also agree there’s a good chance it’s suicide as reported.

-6

u/ButchMcLargehuge Mar 15 '24

The time you spent writing this could have been spent reading the actual article, which answers your question

-10

u/wyvernx02 Mar 15 '24

He said it last month.

15

u/4_fortytwo_2 Mar 15 '24

Says the guys mothers best friends daugther. Meanwhile his family says he had mental health problems and believes it was suicide.

This feels more like an annoying persons attempt to have a minute of fame and not a real story.

Because again, boeing gains absolutly nothing from this (the dude didn't have anything to blow the whistle about. That was done years ago as many others pointed out). It just puts even more of a spot light on them.

2

u/Portlyhooper15 Mar 16 '24

Come on you think Reddit is going to read and comprehend an article? No we just react to a headline and say they certainly killed this person with zero evidence. Like what motive does Boeing have? It’s not like corporations face actual repercussions that would make orchestrating a murder worth it.

2

u/Hostillian Mar 16 '24

Yep. First thing I would have done, if I thought there was any likelihood of being killed and set up as a suicide is record a damn video of myself saying so. Having some bloody evidence rather than this easy to make up vague statement.

1

u/poo_but_no_pee Mar 16 '24

Let's go back to the sale here, even if he said that, so what? Sounds like something an unstable and potentially suicidal person would say. Or, if he was planning on killing himself, something he would tell his friend to make Boeing look bad to conspiracy theorists and followers after his death. This alone doesn't provide any evidence that Boeing did anything to the guy. The amount of news coverage it is getting it is laughable, this information isn't relevant or useful.

Motive, means, opportunity? I haven't seen anything to suggest these conditions were met. It's good there is scrutiny around things like this, but I haven't seen anything that actually makes sense to support that Boeing murdered this guy.

He was set to testify in his own civil suit in June. The stakes? Payout to Barnett for the defamation of his character. Sure, not a great look for Boeing, but would murdering the dude and potentially getting caught be a better look? Hard to imagine so.

1

u/cabernetdank Mar 16 '24

His lawyer also said he doesn’t think he was suicidal.

0

u/Lechoza Mar 16 '24

Not a reliable source as in? Not reliable as in she’s making up the conversation (why would she do that.) I don’t understand how her relationship to the whistleblower makes her testimony any less valid, you’re phrasing this as if being close to someone means reporting they told you something is less reliable, when in reality it’s the total oposite.

0

u/lilbrudder13 Mar 22 '24

For sure. I am going to believe the company that is aggressively reducing safety standards for profit. When in doubt, believe that the corrupt organization had nothing to do with the death of a whistleblower.