BOEING: A DANGER TO ALL?

As I imagine you know, there have been several problems with Boeing aircraft in the last six years. This has led to serious concerns about Boeing’s commitment to safety and quality in its manufacturing. There’s quite a bit of evidence that it’s been cutting corners to maximize profits. Among other things, several whistleblowers have come forward with solid evidence of Boeing management’s lack of concern about safety and quality. What you may not know is that two of those whistleblowers have died in the last two months in unusual circumstances that have raised questions about how far Boeing would go to cover up its culpability for the accidents with Boeing planes.

(Note: If you find my posts too long to read on occasion, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)

You probably remember the Boeing 737 Max airliner crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people and the January 2024 Alaska Airlines 737 Max door plug blow out while in flight that left a gaping opening in the plane’s fuselage. There have been other incidents with Boeing planes that you may not have heard about including a jammed rudder on a 737 Max that caused a near miss in Newark in March, an emergency landing of a San Francisco to Boston flight after a report of a wing coming apart, and a malfunctioning de-icing system. Boeing has also failed 33 of 89 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) audits.

As a result of all this, Boeing is under intense scrutiny for its apparent lack of commitment to safety and willingness to cut corners to reduce costs and increase profits. Over the past 10 years, Boeing’s profits have allowed it to buyback $39 billion of its own stock and pay another $20 billion to its shareholders in dividends. Boeing spent $26.6 million on lobbying with 17 lobbying firms in 2021 and 2022. Since 2010, it’s spent over $200 million on lobbying. It’s also spent $30 million on campaign contributions since 2010. So, it’s not like Boeing is running on a shoe string and can’t afford to pay attention to quality and safety.

But there’s no way that Boeing would murder a prominent whistleblower or two, is there? This question was first raised in March 2024 when a Boeing whistleblower died of an apparent suicide that was a total shock and unbelievable to everyone who knew him. [1] Then, in early May, a second Boeing whistleblower died after a short and unusual illness. Meanwhile, serious and potentially very damaging  investigations of Boeing’s quality control and commitment to safety in building its aircraft are ongoing.

In the March case, John Barnett, who had worked at Boeing for 28 years when he retired in late 2016, was found dead of an apparent suicide. Friends and his lawyer find it impossible to believe that he committed suicide. Circumstances also make it incongruent. He had filed a whistleblower complaint against Boeing in 2017 asserting a lack of commitment to safety in the manufacturing of its 787 Dreamliner airplane. (What he saw was so bad that he now refuses to fly.) In March, the case was about to go to trial after seven years of work and there was every reason to believe his safety concerns would be substantiated. His lawyer stated, “He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him. We didn’t see any indication that he would take his own life. … No one can believe it.” [2] A family friend told a Charleston, SC, TV station reporter that Barnett had said to her that if he died it wouldn’t be suicide. [3]

He spent the last seven years of his Boeing career supervising 10 to 12 quality assurance inspectors at the North Carolina plant where final assembly of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft was done. Boeing had relocated the plant to North Carolina to avoid unionization. However, skilled machinists were not readily available, so insufficiently skilled workers were hired instead. Therefore, quality problems were frequent.

Boeing management made it clear that they felt that quality assurance was unnecessary. Barnett described how his quality assurance team was taken off the job after finding 300 defects on a fuselage section. He also described how Boeing managers allowed the use of parts that had been identified as defective. In 2014, he was reprimanded for documenting violations in writing, which violated Boeing’s policy of non-documentation. (Note: In the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation of the incident where a “door plug” blew out of an Alaska Airlines plane’s fuselage in flight, Boeing was accused of refusing to cooperate because it failed to produce requested documents. However, it stated it was cooperating but did not have the requested documents because it does not document the repairs and procedures about which the NTSB was asking.)

Barnett’s battles with Boeing management were so stressful that he retired early at 55 and filed a whistleblower complaint. What made Barnett a particularly effective whistleblower was that he had documentation of his concerns, totaling thousands of pages.

More recently, in early May, Joshua Dean, a 45-year-old former quality auditor at a Boeing supplier, Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, KS, died after a short and unusual illness. He had filed a complaint with the FAA alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the [Boeing] 737 [Max] production line.” He was concerned about manufacturing defects in the construction of the planes. Dean was fired by the Boeing supplier last year and filed a complaint with the Labor Department alleging that his termination was retaliation for raising safety concerns. [4]

In April, another Boeing whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, testified before Congress that there was “no safety culture” at Boeing; that employees who raised safety concerns were “ignored, marginalized, threatened, sidelined and worse;” and that he feared “physical violence” after stating his concerns publicly.

I urge you to contact President Biden and urge him to order a thorough Department of Justice and FAA investigation into the quality and safety problems with Boeing’s aircraft and its culpability for them. Please tell him that any penalties need to be sufficient to deter such future behavior by Boeing (as well as by corporations in general). A slap on the wrist and penalties that can be considered a cost of doing business have not deterred corporate bad behavior in the past. You can email President Biden at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments or you can call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111 or the switchboard at 202-456-1414.

[1]      Tkacik, M., 3/14/24, “The strange death of a Boeing whistleblower,” The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/justice/2024-03-14-strange-death-boeing-whistleblower/)

[2]      Tkacik, M., 3/14/24, see above

[3]      Emerson, A., 3/14/24, “ ‘If anything happens, it’s not suicide’: Boeing whistleblower’s prediction before death,” ABC News 4, Charleston, SC (https://abcnews4.com/news/local/if-anything-happens-its-not-suicide-boeing-whistleblowers-prediction-before-death-south-carolina-abc-news-4-2024)

[4]      Rushe, D., 5/2/24, “Second Boeing whistleblower dies after short illness,” The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/02/second-boeing-whistleblower-dies)