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Bernat was originally a quality control manager at Boeing, serving for 32 years before retiring in 2017. Later, he publicly pointed out the safety issues of the Boeing 787 passenger aircraft and alleged that he was retaliated against by Boeing. He was involved in a long-term lawsuit with Boeing.Photo/Reuters
【2024. 3. 13 USA】
The mystery of the death of Boeing whistleblower: Raising Boeing flight safety concerns and “retaliation lawsuits”
Boeing, the leader in the U.S. aviation industry, is deeply concerned about safety. On March 12, South Carolina authorities confirmed that John Barnett, a whistleblower who once worked for Boeing, died. The cause of death was suspected to be suicide by gunshot, but the exact cause remains unknown. Under investigation. Originally, Bernat was still in litigation with Boeing. His two lawyers strongly called for the cause of death to be found out, and emphasized that Bernat was in good physical and mental condition and showed no signs of committing suicide. However, Burnat’s family members said that he died due to Boeing’s Suffering from PTSD due to work environment. Bernat was originally a quality control manager at Boeing, serving for 32 years before retiring in 2017. Later, he publicly pointed out the safety issues of the Boeing 787 passenger aircraft and alleged that he was retaliated against by Boeing. He was involved in a long-term lawsuit with Boeing. Burnett’s death has intensified Boeing’s controversy.
Burnett, 62, lives in Charleston, South Carolina. Before his death, he was preparing to testify in a lawsuit against Boeing. Burnett sued Boeing for publicly pointing out its mistakes in the production of the 787 Dreamliner. There were serious safety issues, and retaliation against him, such as slandering his reputation and hindering his career, Boeing denied the accusations, and the dispute between the two parties is still ongoing.
According to a statement provided to the BBC by two of Burnett’s lawyers, Robert Turkewitz and Brian Knowles, Burnett is currently involved in a “whistleblower retaliation lawsuit” with Boeing. It was coming to an end, and he only gave a formal deposition a week before his death, in which he was questioned by Boeing’s lawyers and answered questions from his own lawyers.
The lawyer’s statement pointed out that Bernat is in good physical and mental condition and looks forward to ending the lawsuit and moving on with his life. “We have seen no signs that he will take his own life, and no one believes that he will do so.” Bernat was originally scheduled to die in March. He was questioned further on the 9th, but he failed to show up. Later, Bernat’s body was found in his truck in the parking lot of the hotel where he was staying. The Charleston Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed on March 12 that Burnett died of a gunshot with obvious signs of suicide. The police are still investigating the entire case, and other details have not been disclosed.
Barnett’s brother, Rodney Barnett, gave a different account than the lawyer. Rodney said that Barnett suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety due to long-term exposure to Boeing’s hostile and hostile work environment. Symptoms, the family believes that this may be related to the cause of his death; however, Rodney pointed out that Burnett is looking forward to going to court and hoping to force Boeing to improve the company’s culture – Burnett once pointed out that Boeing’s corporate culture only values production speed, To reduce costs and expand sales, management “doesn’t care about safety issues, only cares about meeting arrangements.”
Prior to his retirement, Burnett served with Boeing for 32 years, and from 2010 until his retirement due to health reasons in 2017, he served as a quality assurance manager at Boeing’s North Charleston plant, which produces the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. ——The Boeing 787 is Boeing’s latest wide-body medium-sized passenger aircraft. It was put into service in 2011 and is widely used on long-haul routes by many airlines around the world. Burnett’s lawyer pointed out that when Burnett was a quality control manager, he learned that there were serious safety problems with the Boeing 787. He chose to expose the problems, but he suffered retaliation and was trapped in a hostile work environment.
According to an interview with Burnett by the BBC, in 2016 Burnett publicly pointed out that as many as a quarter of the emergency oxygen supply systems on Boeing 787s may malfunction, resulting in the inability to operate oxygen supply in an emergency. During the flight of the aircraft, if an emergency occurs and the cabin is suddenly depressurized, breathing masks will drop above the seats, and the emergency oxygen system will provide oxygen to these masks; if the system fails to operate, the passengers on board will die from lack of oxygen in a short period of time. Mobility: At an altitude of more than 10,000 meters, the process of losing consciousness takes less than a minute. If the altitude exceeds 12,000 meters, this process will be shortened to 20 seconds, which may cause brain damage or even death to the passengers.
The picture shows the Boeing 787 passenger plane.Photo/AFP
Bernat pointed out that he tested oxygen bottles with slightly damaged appearances at work and found that some of the oxygen bottles were not functioning properly, so he arranged for the Boeing R&D department to conduct another test; this time the test used 300 undamaged oxygen systems. , it was found that the failure rate was 25%. Later, Bernat wanted to investigate the matter further, but was blocked by Boeing. By 2017, Burnett complained to the U.S. Aviation Administration (FAA), alleging that the FAA took no action on the matter. The FAA said that Boeing was investigating on its own at the time.
Boeing denied Bernat’s statement and stated that it did receive some faulty oxygen bottles from suppliers in 2017, but these oxygen bottles were removed from the aircraft during the flight and were not installed on the aircraft. Supply issues have also been resolved. Boeing also stated: “Every passenger oxygen system installed on our aircraft is tested multiple times before delivery to ensure it is functioning properly. Once in service, it is also tested regularly.”
However, Bernat pointed out that Boeing did not strictly follow the procedures to track parts, resulting in many faulty parts being “lost” – he claimed that with the knowledge of at least one management personnel, assembly workers would assemble the aircraft on the production line. Installing substandard parts that should have been scrapped, he explained that the purpose of this was to save time in rushing the order because “Boeing of South Carolina strictly adheres to schedules and costs.”
In early 2017, an FAA review confirmed Burnett’s statement. During the review, it was found that at least 53 substandard parts were unaccounted for and listed as missing, and Boeing was ordered to try to remedy them.
Since January 5, 2024, after an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft took off, the windows and fuselage suddenly came loose and flew away, causing a loss of pressure in the cabin and an emergency landing. The FAA immediately required some of the same model Planes were temporarily grounded, and in late January the FAA banned Boeing from increasing production of the 737 Max. Reviews of the safety of Boeing airliners are also continuing.
On March 11, another Boeing flight accident was reported. This time it was a Boeing 787 of Chilean LATAM Airlines. It descended sharply due to unknown reasons on its way from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. Although it recovered after an emergency climb The flight was normal, but severe concussion caused injuries to at least 50 people on board.
The picture shows the Boeing 787 passenger plane.Picture/Boeing Company
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2024-03-13 06:26:53
