The family of deceased Boeing whistleblower John Barnett has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the aerospace company, alleging that Barnett’s “PTSD, depression, anxiety, and panic attacks, all caused by Boeing’s wrongful conduct, caused him to take his own life.”
According to NPR, “the lawsuit seeks a jury trial to recover financial losses and impose punitive damages on Boeing, accusing the company of contributing to Barnett’s ‘ongoing mental distress and unavoidable death.'”
Barnett, a former quality inspector manager for Boeing, was found dead on March 9, 2024 in South Carolina. He reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was years into a whistleblower retaliation case against Boeing and for whistleblower advocates, Barnett’s death underscored concerns about the retaliatory treatment and the protracted legal proceedings that whistleblowers face.
Barnett had internally raised claims concerning quality and safety in Boeing’s manufacturing process. He alleged that a series of defaults jeopardized the quality of Boeing products and the safety of those who depended on them.
In response to his whistleblowing, Barnett allegedly encountered retaliation, which drove him to pursue legal recourse. After being pushed into an early retirement in 2017, he initiated a legal action under the Wendell H. Ford Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR21) with the Department of Labor. For the past seven years, the administrative proceedings had not scheduled a hearing. It was during the deposition and discovery phase of the proceedings that Barnett allegedly took his own life.
According to whistleblower advocates, delays caused by understaffing and a lack of resources as well as a statutory loophole relating to enforcement of preliminary reinstatement orders mean that AIR21’s anti-retaliation provisions are not working they way Congress intended.
“While AIR21 outlines an expeditious timeline for the Department of Labor to respond to whistleblower complaints, understaffing and a lack of resources have hindered the Department’s ability to abide by the 60-day timeline mandated by law,” according to an article by the whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto. “These delays have resulted in the pile-up of aviation whistleblower claims at the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). Compounding this dysfunction, a technical loophole in AIR21 has allowed aviation companies to ignore orders for whistleblowers’ preliminary reinstatement without consequence for decades. These two issues undermine the Congressional intent behind the law and erode the crucial protections it affords aviation whistleblowers.”
Given these issues, aviation safety whistleblowers like Barnett can have their cases drag on for years, while airlines and manufacturers do not have to follow preliminary reinstatement orders.
National Whistleblower Center is urging Congress to pass a reform law fixing the statutory loophole and is calling on President Trump to issue an Executive Order that mandates OSHA complete all investigations within the legally mandated 60-day window.
Join NWC in Taking Action:
Close the Major Loophole in Airline Safety Whistleblower Law
