- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.
In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.
Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett’s passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.
It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating.
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Shades of Karen Silkwood right here. :(
Michael Hastings as well
deleted by creator
And they get away with it because we let them. We have proven time and time again that we’ll do nothing, so they’ll keep doing it.
The difference between terrorism and revolution is critical mass of supporters. If it was as easy as taking to the streets with guns I imagine more of the left would do it. We only have to look as far back as 2019 to Willem van Spronsen to see you’d likely just die in vain. Until then, train, agitate, and organize.
This is “falling out of a window or down an elevator shaft in Russia”-level blatant.
This appears very loud and clear to any other potential whistle-blowers.
You forgot blown-up plane. For Boeing it is super easy.
Yes, a prominent manufacturer is likely to publicly destroy their product to target one person, rather than simply have their lawyers and accountants make life as difficult as possible for this person.
They seem to be just fine publicly destroying their products for better stock prices.
Last week, he gave a formal deposition in which he was questioned by Boeing’s lawyers, before being cross-examined by his own counsel.
He had been due to undergo further questioning on Saturday. When he did not appear, enquiries were made at his hotel.
He was subsequently found dead in his truck in the hotel car park.
I’m not going to say that Boeing had this guy directly killed, but I can certainly see them and their legal team explicitly trying to make his life as hellish as possible until he felt that he only had one way out. Legal threats if you stop proceeding with your case, legals threats if you don’t, they want a terrible warning for any other whistleblowers.
Isn’t that exactly what happened to Aaron Schwartz? Not a whistleblower, but similar tactics
Yes the FBI wanted to make an example out of him for the crime of downloading research papers from a service he had legitimate access to. Even JSTOR thought the prosecution was absurd and didn’t want anything to do with it.
I’m fully expecting to learn in a decade or so that spez was behind it using his family connections to push out the one person dedicated to keeping reddit from becoming a profit machine.
He was staying at a hotel out-of-state while giving evidence against Boeing.
He was found dead in his car in the hotel parking lot from a ‘self-inflicted wound’.There’s really no other way to look at it logically than he was murdered by Boeing. Nothing else adds up.
They don’t gain much. The FAA is breathing down their neck already.
Not sure how much jurisdiction or investigation the FFA does for murders that occur on the ground though.
At the point of a deposition, his complaints are already documented and can be verified by regulators.
Gotta make an example out of him.
We worry about being able to feed our families enough.
The FAA has allowed this mess to continue for far too long because Boeing is an industry titan. Too big to fail. Well, maybe not anymore.
Too big to fail is a terrible concept that was invented.
If a company gets too big to the point that it’s failure is going to drag down the company. That company should be broken up to allow them to to fail. Anything else is either reward the ximpa y for making bad mistakes or allow companies to stagnant because anything happens, the government will bail them out.
I would 100% vote for you (unironically).
Watch politician holdings of Boeing stock.
I expect Nancy to sell lol
What do you mean? They fail all the time. Fail to secure doors. Fail to have working oxygen masks. Fail to warn pilots about a system that points the nose of the plane down constantly…
An investor could’ve threatened his family? (So not directly Boeing)
If he got a bunch of hate online, or had crippling anxiety about the testimony he still had to give? I mean you could even speculate he thought he would be killed someday, so he took it into his own hands.
(Please note the above is all BS!)
I would argue the jury is still out and that we may never know.
Direct involvement might be a question still. But general involvement is absolute. If Boeing wasn’t so shitty he almost assuredly would still be alive.
I suppose even if nobody ever said a word to him you could make that argument. No poor business practices = no testimony = no car in a hotel parking lot.
An investor could’ve threatened his family? (So not directly Boeing)
Or somebody involved in corporate corruption and embezzling in Boeing. That would be worse for Boeing as a whole than him remaining alive, but possibly better for that somebody who may not be identified.
He wasn’t even done giving the deposition that he literally volunteered to give…
literall–
Downvote.
🤓
i’m literally sorry that you literally don’t know standard english my guy, i literally don’t know what to literally say to you 😭
“Literally” CAN be used as an hyperbole. It’s just a more emphatic way to say “very”
You could’ve just done so and moved on, my guy. It’s not a profound statement.
I upvoted this.
Why?
Let me list the reasons: it’s creative, provocative and a little sultry.
I’m about half hard right now so you deserve it.
Downvote
You can have an upvote too!
I’m floppier then a rubber tube full of jelly but that’s because I’m in my refractory period.
Flaccid. Downvote
Meds.
Did he not literally volunteer?
I mean, I get it, I’m sick of “literally” meaning “figuratively”, and I’d die on that hill with you, but this is the dumbest possible time to make that stand. In this case “literally” just means “literally”.
That was indeed a perfectly cromulent use of “literally”.
Found the boeing employee
Literally has been used as an intensifier for over 200 years. The Oxford English Dictionary includes a definition of literally meaning “figuratively”. Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, James Joyce, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain all used it that way in their writing.
So until you write something as well respected and enduring as Sanditon, The Great Gatsby, Tom Sawyer, or Ulysses and collect your mother fucking Nobel prize in literature, please choke on a literal dick you confidently incorrect fuckwit.
I don’t care what justification you throw out. Misuse of literally drives me figuratively insane!
How is it misused? Did he figuratively agree to give a deposition?
It’s just a general statement. Not specific to this article or comments 🤷
In this case literally literally did mean literally, though, not figuratively. Which makes the fuckwit even more incorrect.
Please don’t reddit up the place, I like it here
I don’t know what you were trying to achieve beyond publicly announcing you’re a petty, boring person.
It makes no sense for them to kill him, that draws wayyyy too much attention. More likely if they were involved, they blackmailed him and that caused him to kill himself, or another party that also wanted to keep him quiet killed him and they didn’t care if it looked like Boeing did it.
Does suicide ever add up? It being a hit doesn’t add up either. A hotel parking lot is a rather public place to try to force someone to kill themselves.
Look, I’m not gonna say Boeing did it. Though if they did, I’d bet money they drove.
I mean, I think the logical thing to do is wait until the evidence comes out and we know for sure. It’s entirely possible he was under a lot of stress from all this and did kill himself. Now, I don’t deny that it’s a HUGE. FUCKING. CONICIDENCE. but those do happen from time to time. Its also a hell of a story, good-guy whistleblower murdered by greedy multinational aerospace company and defense contractor…during an election year…if you wrote the script nobody would buy it.
Let’s be suspicious, but not jump to conclusions.
Jesus, do you think maybe they’re trying to run out the clock too? Who wants to bet that a certain CEO is angling for a political position within a certain potential administration?
This is the kind of go get em attitude a certain potential administration might be impressed by.
Hugely impressed. Big, so big. Huge
Weird, but I read this article and before it said specifically that he died from a gunshot wound. Looks like it’s been updated (or redacted) to leave that bit out. Originally it said he died from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
So Boeing executives murdered a whistleblower. huh.
Being in Quality Control myself, I’ve always felt pressure from higher ups around some of our bigger findings. Cool to know if I ever find something too big they’ll just straight up murder me.
Something strange like that happened after that Sri Lankan family was murdered in Ontario. Was referred to as a mass shooting until no, wait, was a knife.
Sometimes reporters get details of the story wrong. I don’t know what’s so strange about that.
Bit of a lack of professionalism there.
Crime journalists write what the cops say. Blame the source, not the messenger.
That’s…a bit of a lack pf professionalism too. Way too common now.
That is perfectly fine, but any corrections or changes should be noted and explained, not quietly changed.
I’ve thought about this way too much and if you seriously think you’re in danger, there’s a few things you can do. Obviously lots of security cameras with local and off-site backups. Then hidden cameras, whatever spy cameras you can find, with an SD card in each. Then you need to create a deadman switch. Something you must interact with at least daily or it automatically uploads all your videos and documents etc everywhere it can, and / or sends them to your lawyer or journalists if you think you can trust them. I err on the side of public release as well because as long as it’s in the public eye it will be subject to scrutiny. That’s also why I’d start establishing a social media presence. “HI I’m X, I blew the whistle on Y. There’s a hearing scheduled for Z and I would like to once again publicly state that I don’t have any current medical or mental health issues and I have no plans to ever take my own life. Anyway here’s how to make waffles” or whatever.
I’ve thought about this a lot too and I don’t even have a job where I need to worry about it. The best way is really to just stay in the public eye and be as transparent as legally possible. I considered just fucking live streaming most of my life on twitch if I needed too. Car cam, house cam, go pro on my person, etc.
A 24-hour live stream is brilliant.
I’d still do a hidden cam or two in your car and other places you’re likely to switch networks and lose your stream for a moment.
100% they killed him
America is a truly sick society
ITT: The equivalent of Trump supporters confusing the fact that they are suspicious that the election was stolen, with actually knowing so.
Well, Boeing is demonstrably willing, even determined, to choose financial short term gain over any amount of human lives or reputation loss. It would be shocking if it was truly an accident that saved Boeing from a second day of testimony right when everything is starting to really fall apart for them, right?
Notice how you haven’t offered up any evidence. Just motivation to kill him (even that’s tenuous at best).
You know what Trump supporters often argue? That the “deep state” had motive to stop Trump from becoming POTUS, which is what makes their claims reasonable.
In this case, you’re acting just like them.
Exactly what evidence are you expecting random people on the internet to dig up?
I’m expecting random people on the Internet not to dog up evidence, but to accept that their suspicions are just that, and without evidence you can’t call it likely the truth or pretend you know what happened.
You know, basic critical thinking.
No, that’s called letting other people think for you, but if that’s what you consider critical thinking, then I know who you voted for.
I don’t disagree with you. But evidence of Boeing being willing to trade lives for profit is super, super easy to find right now. If you aren’t being disingenuous I am willing to do some of the labor you are asking for
You are just justifying being suspicious. I’m suspicious too. You don’t need to convince me of rhay.
But it’s 100% possible for them to be willing to kill him but he still killed himself. Right now I’ve seen no evidence that they did it. It’s all blind speculation.
I didn’t say they did although I would personally place it at like a 60% likelihood. Obviously there’s no evidence, this literally just happened.
Just wanted to be clear that I live in reality and no one has the security camera footage yet.
I didn’t say they did
t would be shocking if it was truly an accident that saved Boeing from a second day of testimony right when everything is starting to really fall apart for them, right?
Say it? No. But you certainly implied it.
I would personally place it at like a 60% likelihood.
Which is based on suspicion alone. That’s my point.
I’d say it’s more like a huge percentage of votes for one candidate got lost in a fire. Sure fires happen, but it was really important that this one should be protected from happening.
Seems legit.
I guess you really don’t know what’s going on inside people’s heads
Boeing knew, they are the ones that put the bullets through it
You should make a police statement if you have proof of that/witnessed it
Did he fly on a Boeing plane?
…what the fuck?
First whistleblower “suicide”?
The second I see someone’s name next to whistleblower, I know they’re on borrowed time, some manage to be left alone, but most don’t, that’s why we need to keep these people’s names and causes alive, we can’t let corporations get away with silencing a whistleblower, we must amplify it.
Also found this article with more details but wtf is this website? I’ve never heard of it? Sketchy? Legit? I have no clue.
That site also has a 2019 interview with John Barnett. The site is named and the interview is quoted in today’s Daily Mail article on the whistleblower’s suspicious death.
So, corporate crime reporter appears legit; the whistleblower spoke with them in 2019, and his lawyer did write to them with details.
