The Life and Death of a Boeing Whistleblower

Summary

Summary of "The Life and Death of a Boeing Whistleblower"

The Journal, a co-production of The Wall Street Journal and Gimlet, delves deep into the complex and tragic story of John Barnett, a dedicated Boeing employee whose commitment to aviation safety ultimately led to his untimely death. Hosted by Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson, with insights from Jessica Mendoza, this episode unpacks the multifaceted issues surrounding whistleblowing, corporate retaliation, and personal sacrifice.

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Content Warning

This episode discusses suicide. Please listen with care.

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Introduction

The episode opens with the tragic story of John Barnett, a seasoned Boeing employee whose dedication to safety and integrity cost him his life. The narrative weaves through Barnett's career, his whistleblower actions, the subsequent retaliation he faced, and the profound personal impacts that culminated in his suicide.

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John Barnett: Early Life and Career at Boeing

Background and Personal Values

John Barnett, affectionately known as Mitch by his family, was raised in Louisiana under the guidance of his mother, Vicki Stokes. His upbringing instilled in him a strong sense of right and wrong, compelling him to stand up for others.

Rodney Barnett (John’s Brother) [04:08]: "She taught us to always do what was right and stand up for those that couldn't stand up for themselves."

Professional Journey

Barnett's professional journey began at Rockwell International before he joined Boeing in 1988. Over nearly three decades, he became a respected quality control expert, contributing significantly to the manufacturing of the 787 Dreamliner. His commitment was evident as he took pride in his role and the company's reputation.

Rodney Barnett [05:35]: "Boeing was the place. I mean, they were the place to work."

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Rising Concerns: The South Carolina Plant

Corporate Changes and Shifting Priorities

In the late 1980s, Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, a move that gradually shifted the company's focus towards maximizing profits. This change was more palpably felt when Barnett was transferred to the new South Carolina plant in 2010 to set up quality control systems for the 787 Dreamliner.

Rodney Barnett [07:23]: "At the time, he was considered one of the most knowledgeable quality control inspectors at Seattle. So he was looking, you know, he's looking forward to it."

Deteriorating Standards and Quality Issues

Once at the South Carolina plant, Barnett observed numerous safety and quality issues, such as metal shavings that could jeopardize aircraft wiring and defective parts being improperly handled. Additionally, mechanics were permitted to inspect their own work, a practice that Barnett found deeply troubling.

Rodney Barnett [07:47]: "From day one, it's just all been about schedule and hurry up and just get it done, push the planes out."

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Whistleblower Complaint and Retaliation

Filing the Complaint

In 2017, John Barnett filed a whistleblower complaint with the Department of Labor, alleging that Boeing retaliated against him for raising safety concerns. His detailed deposition highlighted systemic issues within the plant and a corporate culture that discouraged dissent.

Boeing’s Response

Boeing maintained that they had addressed the issues Barnett raised, such as ending the self-inspection program in 2022, and emphasized their encouragement for employees to report any concerns.

Boeing Statement [02:34]: "We encourage all employees at Boeing to speak up if they see a potential problem."

Colleagues’ Perspectives

Roy Irvin, a former quality manager at the plant, corroborated Barnett's struggles, describing the hostile environment and the challenges of raising legitimate safety concerns.

Roy Irvin [10:53]: "Just a constant argument. No matter what you're trying to do, it would be a constant argument. I'm trying to do the right thing."

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Personal Struggles and Mental Health Decline

Impact on Barnett’s Well-being

The relentless pressure and perceived indifference from Boeing took a significant toll on Barnett’s mental health. Diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), he faced anxiety and depression, exacerbated by the lack of support and unresolved grievances.

Vicki Stokes [15:08]: "He was really aggravated it upset him because he took the responsibility of his job seriously."

Attempts to Seek Resolution

Barnett sought to transfer within Boeing and filed internal complaints, but felt blacklisted and unsupported. His dedication to safety persisted despite the diminishing support.

Rodney Barnett [13:30]: "They were trying to get things done, and they want him to sign off on things that he hadn't inspected."

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Legal Battle and Continued Advocacy

Filing Formal Complaints

Barnett filed formal complaints with both the FAA and OSHA, seeking to address manufacturing violations and alleged retaliation. While the FAA partially substantiated his claims, OSHA rejected his retaliation case, prompting Barnett to appeal and seek further legal recourse.

Boeing’s Legal Maneuvering

Boeing actively contested Barnett’s case, attempting to dismiss parts of it and alleging wrongful retention of internal documents—a claim that was ultimately dismissed by the judge.

Judge’s Comment [25:08]: "Woefully lacking."

Ongoing Struggles

Despite legal setbacks, Barnett remained steadfast in his pursuit of accountability, driven by a conscience that would not let him abandon his principles.

Rodney Barnett [37:58]: "We don't think they pulled the trigger. We think that if this would have been taken care of long time ago..."

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Tragic Conclusion: Barnett’s Suicide

The Final Deposition

In March 2024, Barnett traveled to Charleston to give his deposition. The stress of the legal battles and ongoing frustrations took a severe toll on his mental health. Just as his deposition commenced, Barnett failed to appear, and emergency services discovered him deceased in his vehicle, having taken his own life.

Vicki Stokes [34:55]: "He took his own life. And I just. I did not believe that."

Aftermath and Legacy

Barnett's death underscored the immense personal costs associated with whistleblowing in high-stakes industries. His family continues to pursue his legal case against Boeing, advocating for the changes he so passionately believed in.

Rodney Barnett [38:05]: "We think that if Boeing had come forward and adhered to their procedures, we wouldn't have this discussion right now."

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Conclusion

John Barnett's story is a poignant reminder of the challenges whistleblowers face within large corporations. His unwavering commitment to safety and integrity, combined with the severe retaliation he endured, highlights systemic issues that extend beyond individual cases. The Journal effectively captures the human element behind corporate disputes, emphasizing the need for supportive environments that encourage ethical practices without endangering the well-being of those who speak out.

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Final Thoughts

Barnett's narrative serves as both a cautionary tale and a call to action for industries to prioritize safety and employee well-being over profits. His legacy urges organizations to create cultures where integrity is valued, and employees feel empowered to voice concerns without fear of retribution.

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For those contemplating self-harm, help is available. Call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by texting or dialing 988.

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This episode was reported by Ryan Knudson and Heather Rogers, with assistance from Sharon Turlop and Andrew Tangle. Fact-checking was conducted by Mary Mathis.

Transcript

[Ryan Knudson]

A quick heads up before we get started. This episode discusses suicide. Please listen with care. About a year ago, a man named John Barnett got into his orange Dodge Ram to take a road trip. He was driving from his home in Louisiana to Charleston, South Carolina. He was going there to give a deposition in a long standing legal case he had against his former employ. Before Barnett hit the road, he told his mother, Vicki Stokes, that he had a bad feeling about the trip.

[Vicki Stokes]

You know, I asked him, I said, what do you mean? He said, well, I just don't have a good feeling. I'll just be glad to get this trip over with. He says, I'm not scared. He said, I just don't have a good feeling about this trip.

[Ryan Knudson]

After two grueling days of depositions and before he finished his testimony, Barnett was found dead in his in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn. Police ruled his death a suicide. In his truck, on the seat beside him, there was a note. It was in Barnett's handwriting. It said that he was at peace and that he loved his family. And in large letters followed by three exclamation points, it said, I pray Boeing pays Boeing. Barnett worked for the airplane manufacturing G nearly 30 years. Before he left the company, he filed a whistleblower complaint with the Department of Labor alleging the company retaliated against him and pushed him out because he'd raised safety concerns. Boeing disputes this. In a statement, the company said, quote, we are saddened by Mr. Barnett's passing and our thoughts continue to be with his family and friends. Boeing's statement concluded, we encourage all employees at Boeing to speak up if they see a potential problem. Over his career at Boeing, Barnett did speak up a lot.

[Vicki Stokes]

He just felt like they didn't care. And you know, he just, he didn't know where to go. And we tried to tell him, you know, you can't fight a company like that, just let it go. And he said, I just, you know, I can't.

[Ryan Knudson]

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and Ryan. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's Tuesday, February 18th. Coming up on the show, the life and death of a Boeing whistleblower.

[Rob Turkowitz]

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[Ryan Knudson]

John Barnett grew up in Louisiana. His family called him by his middle name, Mitch. Here's his older brother, Rodney Barnett.

[Rodney Barnett]

I don't remember us ever calling him John. He's always been Mitch to us. That's just ever since we were small.

[Ryan Knudson]

We talked to Rodney about his younger brother over the phone from his home in central Louisiana. Rodney said that their mother, Vicky, instilled a clear sense of right and wrong in her kids.

[Rodney Barnett]

She had to raise us, the four boys, by herself pretty much single handedly and, you know, she taught us to always do what was right and stand up for those that couldn't stand up for themselves.

[Ryan Knudson]

Rodney remembers one day when they were kids when Barnett and one of his friends were throwing rocks at an abandoned house and they got caught.

[Rodney Barnett]

So the police showed up and brought him to my mom and the policeman was laughing. He said, you have one honest kid, he said, because when I got these two, he said, I asked him, did they bust the windows? And the friend of Mitch was the son of a preacher. And the friend told him, no, sir, they didn't do that. So he turned to Mitch and he asked, he said, did you throw rocks and bust that door? He said, yes, sir. He said, I threw that first rock and it bounced right off that sucker. So I threw another one as hard as I could.

[Ryan Knudson]

Did he get, did he end up getting in trouble?

[Rodney Barnett]

Oh, we always got in trouble, but, you know, it was for the good. It taught us a lesson.

[Ryan Knudson]

After high school, Barnett briefly served in the military. He then went on to a job at Rockwell International, a company that helped build space shuttles for NASA. After that, in 1988, he was hired at Boeing building airplanes. It was a job he was proud of.

[Rodney Barnett]

Boeing was the place. I mean, they were the place to work.

[Ryan Knudson]

You know, That's Barnett in 2019 in an interview with the New York Times.

[Rodney Barnett]

And oh my God, it was amazing when I put that Boeing shirt on, how my chest puffed out, you know, I'd walk into. He loved his job, he loved the company. He was proud to wear that shirt. And he told us that he'd go out and people would find out he worked for Boeing and they were just congratulating him and thanking him for what he was doing out there.

[Ryan Knudson]

When Barnett started working at Boeing in the late 1980s, the company had a sterling reputation. There was a popular phrase at the time, if it ain't Boeing, I ain't going. Rodney says the company's high standards were part of what his brother loved about his job. Barnett started his career at the Boeing factory in Everett, Washington, near Seattle. That's where he got into quality assurance, where his job was to check airplanes for defects.

[Rodney Barnett]

Once he got into quality control and started attending the classes, he put in hundreds of hours of class time, progressing up quality control ladder and preparing himself to move on to the next level.

[Ryan Knudson]

Over time, Barnett became an expert at the meticulous process of building airplanes and the documentation that goes along with it, which is something that's mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration. Barnett loved his job and he felt like he was really good at it, which is why he jumped at an opportunity that came up in 2010 when Boeing was opening a new plant near Charleston, South Carolina. Barnett was brought in to help set up the factory's quality control system on the company's latest model, the 787 Dreamliner.

[Rodney Barnett]

They offered him a chance to get in on the ground floor, setting up a new plant, getting their safety and quality procedures in place, you know, setting up the programs. At the time, he was considered one of the most knowledgeable quality control inspectors at Seattle. So he was looking, you know, he's looking forward to it.

[Ryan Knudson]

Barnett's arrival in South Carolina happened as Boeing was undergoing major changes. A little over a decade earlier, Boeing merged with a former rival called McDonnell Douglas. In the years after the merger. And this is according to several former Boeing employees and mid level executives. The company started scrutinizing every dollar it spent and it put a greater emphasis on increasing profits. Safety and quality were still considerations, but the overall focus of the company leaders seemed to be more about maximizing shareholder returns. These changes at Boeing happened slowly over the course of years, but for Barnett, he felt them more acutely when he was transferred to that new plant in South Carolina, which was staffed up with new employees who didn't have the years of experience in the aviation industry like he did. Barnett talked about what it was like in an interview a few years ago on the Today show.

[Rodney Barnett]

From day one, it's just all been about schedule and hurry up and just get it done, push the planes out. We're behind schedule. You know, we don't have time to worry about issues that y'all bring up.

[Ryan Knudson]

Barnett worked as a quality manager at the South Carolina plant for seven years, and it was what he experienced during those seven years that changed everything about his relationship with the company. Just before he left Boeing in 2017, Barnett filed a whistleblower complaint against the company, alleging it had retaliated against him for raising safety concerns. To understand what happened while Barnett worked there, we read through court filings, including the lengthy deposition he gave just before he died. We talked to former colleagues and family members about Barnett's claims. We also talked to Boeing, though the company declined to make anyone available for an interview. To boil it down, Barnett thought the South Carolina plant was a mess. He said he noticed lots of problems, like metal shavings left behind that could damage a plane's wiring, defective parts that were removed from a secure area and could have been installed on airplanes. He was alarmed by the fact that mechanics on the assembly line were allowed to inspect their own work. Boeing confirmed that Barnett raised these issues and said they'd all been fixed. The company said it ended the self inspection program in 2022 and that in most cases, Barnett wasn't the only person to point out problems like these. Boeing said it encourages workers to come forward. Boeing also pointed out that the 787 Dreamliner, which was manufactured at the plant where Barnett worked, has a strong safety record. The meat of Barnett's complaint, though, is more about how he was treated when he raised alarms about this stuff. In his deposition, Barnett said he was consistently met with pushback. He said his bosses told him repeatedly that he didn't know how to do his job. One of Barnett's colleagues in South Carolina was a man named Roy Irvin. He's retired now, but Roy says it was hard to raise safety concerns.

[Rob Turkowitz]

Just a constant argument. No matter what you're trying to do, it would be a constant argument. I'm trying to do the right thing.

[Ryan Knudson]

Roy worked in quality at the South Carolina plant from 2010 to 2020. After Barnett died, he started speaking out publicly about Boeing. Roy remembers one time Barnett called him to the factory floor. He wanted Roy to back him up in a disagreement he was having with his supervisors.

[Rob Turkowitz]

He seemed to be kind of stuttering and mumbling, you know, I mean, I could tell he was really shaken. He had his own quality leadership against him. He was standing his ground, you know, but you could tell he was nervous about it.

[Ryan Knudson]

Tell me more about that.

[Rob Turkowitz]

It was his manager, production managers, and it was. It was four or five against one, like they did a lot of.

[Ryan Knudson]

And so these are situations where he was saying, something needs to change inside the airplane. There's a problem that needs to be fixed. And his own bosses were saying no, it doesn't.

[Rob Turkowitz]

Right. Yes. Yeah. And Boeing's really good about putting three or four guys against you. You'd have two or three production managers, you'd have two or three other quality managers. And they were going against him. And he's trying to explain the. The right way to do things. And, you know, they weren't.

[Ryan Knudson]

Boeing said the company carefully investigates concerns and said, we take action to address any validated issue. Barnett said in his deposition that many of his superiors and colleagues didn't seem to care about policies and procedures the way he did. He recalled a meeting where he told a group of mechanics that documenting production of an airplane was just as important as the airplane itself. Barnett said the whole room burst out laughing. Barnett also testified that his bosses said things in meetings like, we've got to work this weekend. Because Barnett found an issue, he said his superiors pressured him to stop putting so many of the problems he found in writing, but he refused to comply. Here he is talking about that in a Netflix documentary.

[Rodney Barnett]

They've told us flat out they do not want anything in documentation so they can maintain culpable den they don't want anything documented.

[Ryan Knudson]

Boeing said employees are, quote, empowered and encouraged to report any concern with safety and quality. Barnett's brother Rodney says Barnett told him Boeing managers said he needed to ease up on his requirements.

[Rodney Barnett]

They were trying to get things done, and they want him to sign off on things that he hadn't inspected. And just one thing after another started to snowball. Kind of like they started changing procedures or just flat out dropping procedures and not having the inspection.

[Ryan Knudson]

Boeing said it had a zero tolerance policy for employees signing off on inspections they hadn't done and that there are ways employees can report claims about this. The company said Barnett never raised any valid claims of this nature.

[Rodney Barnett]

He was really aggravated it upset him because he took the responsibility of his job seriously. It wasn't something that he just came in and reported to work and then left.

[Ryan Knudson]

According to his performance reviews, which were discussed at length in his deposition, it seems like Barnett's managers thought he could be difficult to work with in those reviews. They said Barnett had operational knowledge, but that they wanted him to be more adaptable and to talk with colleagues in person about how to solve problems rather than sending emails. Barnett was insistent on following policies and procedures down to the letter. His bosses wanted him to be a team player and just get the work done. They said he needed to learn the art of working in the gray areas. In the South Carolina plant, Barnett started to get lower scores on his reviews. And he said that one of his supervisors once told him, I'm going to push you until you break. Boeing disputes that this happened and said the company did not retaliate against Barnett. His mom, Vicki Stokes, saw the toll this was taking on her son when she visited him in South Carolina.

[Vicki Stokes]

He would come home, and I noticed he was working a late shift, and I noticed he wasn't going to bed. So I'd get up and go downstairs, and, you know, he'd just be sitting outside drinking coffee or something. I'd ask him what was wrong, and he'd say, I just don't understand, you know, why they. They won't fix things. And that's when it started bothering him. And he said, I go to my boss, and they don't seem to care. And he tried to go up the line, and he said, I just can't get anything done. And that's when we started noticing. I noticed it affected him mentally or, you know, stress. He just worried about it all the time.

[Ryan Knudson]

Why do you think he couldn't let it go?

[Vicki Stokes]

He said, well, because it's the right thing and somebody has to do it. And he told me one time, mama, if something happened to one of those planes that I signed off on, I could never live with myself. And he said that somebody's mother, daddy, brother, or child on those planes. And he said, you know, I just have to pursue this.

[Ryan Knudson]

According to court filings, Barnett started applying for other jobs within Boeing. But he said he had been blacklisted and couldn't get transferred. At one point, he was moved from managing quality on the production floor, where he actually worked on airplanes, to what he considered to be a demotion, where his job was to keep track of defective parts. In his testimony, Barnett said he was humiliated, and it felt like a, quote, slap in the face. Barnett filed internal ethics complaints and went to hr, but he said his situation never improved. And then in late 2016, Barnett said he found out his name was at the top of a list of people his managers wanted to get rid of. Boeing said there's no evidence such a list ever existed. The company also said he was never demoted and that his pay was never cut and that the company rotated people's positions around the factory all the time. Barnett later told his lawyers that it was around this time that he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and his doctor told him that he could have a heart attack if he didn't leave his job. How hard of a decision do you think it was for your brother to quit Boeing, a company that he seemed to love working for.

[Rodney Barnett]

It was really a struggle for him. He kept thinking that things would get better, I believe, and he stuck with that as long as he could, facing that retaliation and everything that was being thrown at him by his managers until he just had. He just had to leave. So it wasn't easy for him to do that.

[Ryan Knudson]

But Barnett said he didn't feel like he had a choice. So in early 2017, after roughly three decades at Boeing, he retired 10 years earlier than he said he planned to. Burnett moved back to Louisiana to be near his mother and brothers. He built a pool at his house for his nieces and nephews. He got married. On the surface, it seemed like he was ready to move on. But Barnett couldn't move on. That's after the.

[Roy Irvin]

John came in and started telling me about what complaints he had been making and what was going on at Boeing. Just listening to it, it was incredible.

[Ryan Knudson]

Just before he left Boeing, John Barnett reached out to a local lawyer who specializes in whistleblower cases, a man named Rob Turkowitz.

[Roy Irvin]

And as he told me from day one, he said, I, you know, I was concerned about the flying public, and that was his number one priority. And he said that with the violations that were going on at the 787 plant, it needs to be made public and the regulators need to know about it. And at some point, you know, Boeing's going to be held accountable for it.

[Ryan Knudson]

Being a whistleblower can mean lots of things. It can mean just speaking up internally, it can mean going to the media. But in the airline industry, there's actually a law that defines. Was enacted in the year 2000, and it's known as Air21. The law did several things that tried to improve safety in the airline industry, and one of them was adding protections to employees who spoke up about safety. With his lawyer's help, Barnett filed two formal complaints. One with the faa, alleging safety violations, and another with osha, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, alleging that Boeing retaliated against him for raising concerns. While Barnett's two complaints worked their way through the system, he was still haunted by what happened at Boeing. In his deposition, Barnett said he thought about applying for other jobs. Remember, he retired 10 years earlier than he said he'd planned to, but he couldn't face it. Too many bad memories. Here's Barnett's lawyer. Rob again, every time he tried to.

[Roy Irvin]

Fill out an application, he just couldn't do it because of, you know, he just started having these anxiety attacks and panic attacks. He didn't want to risk having to be working for individuals that would subject him to, you know, the kind of hostile work environment he was subjected to.

[Ryan Knudson]

That's pretty. I mean, that sounds pretty intense to have that feeling about, you know, any other job.

[Roy Irvin]

Yeah, I mean, I think this. I think his experience of Boeing had a profound effect on him, and it just totally affected his life and everything, everything around him.

[Ryan Knudson]

This might seem like an extreme reaction to a job, but to many psychologists who study whistleblowers, it can actually be quite common. Whistleblowers often can't understand why the people in charge don't acknowledge or fix the problems that to them seem so obvious. And for the whistleblower, this dissonance can lead to social isolation, depression, extreme anxiety, and even symptoms of PTSD. Then, in 2018 and 2019, safety at Boeing became a big story. Welcome to the program. We begin with breaking news coming out of Asia Pacific. A Lion Air flight has crashed into the sea off the coast of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. It was a Boeing plane, and of everyone on board, almost 200 people, no one survived. To Barnett, it felt like his worst nightmares were coming true. And then, just a few months later, breaking news. An Ethiopian Airlines flight has crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis ababa, killing all 157 passengers and crew thought to be on board.

[Roy Irvin]

You know, each time there was a problem with Boeing, like the crashes and all, it made him even more determined to make sure that his voice was heard not only by the faa, but also by the public. He felt like the public needed to be warned about these things. There are these concerns that he didn't feel were being adequately addressed.

[Ryan Knudson]

To be clear, the two Boeing planes that crashed were different from the ones Barnett worked on and were not produced at the South Carolina plant. And investigators concluded that the crashes were primarily the result of faulty engineering rather than manufacturing problems. Barnett was watching all of this unfold, and he started talking publicly about his concerns, doing interviews for newspapers, TV shows, and a documentary. Here he is again in an interview with the New York Times.

[Rodney Barnett]

I still lose sleep every night. I just. I guess. I don't know, I got a conscience or something. I don't know. But I just, you know, I had to get it. I have to get it addressed. That's why I keep telling my story. Somebody's got to step in and get it addressed.

[Ryan Knudson]

Meanwhile, Barnett felt like his whistleblower case against Boeing was going nowhere. Barnett filed his two complaints with two different agencies, the FAA and osha, but his experience with each agency was very different. The FAA complaint which is about manufacturing violations, was partly substantiated. The agency said Boeing was already fixing some of the problems Barnett raised with osha, which looked at his retaliation claims. It took nearly four years for the agency to reach a conclusion, and OSHA rejected his claim, but only seemed to address one aspect of it, which was that he was passed over for other jobs. The agency said there wasn't evidence to support that. OSHA declined to comment specifically on Barnett's. Rob says that both he and Barnett were frustrated with how long the process was taking. But Barnett wasn't ready to give up. He felt like the FAA's findings gave his claims legitimacy, but that OSHA hadn't given him a fair shake, and he worried things at the plant weren't really getting better. So in 2021, he and his lawyer appealed the OSHA ruling and filed a case with the Department of Labor. Barnett sought compensation for having to retire early and damages for the psychological toll he said he suffered. In response, Boeing did what big corporations do. It fought back. Boeing tried to get pieces of Barnett's case dismissed without success. It filed a counterclaim alleging he wrongfully held onto internal company documents. The judge ultimately dismissed that case. His lawyer, Rob, also says Boeing dragged its feet in turning over discovery documents. The judge in the case admonished Boeing multiple times for being slow in handing over information. At one point, the judge called the company's compliance with those orders, quote, woefully lacking. In response to questions about this, Boeing said it submitted over 8,500 documents in the case. All this legal back and forth kept Barnett busy for years. Well, after he left Boeing, how much time did you notice him working on his case, his lawsuit against Boeing?

[Vicki Stokes]

A lot.

[Ryan Knudson]

Barnett's mother, Vicki, again, I never went.

[Vicki Stokes]

Over to his house that there wasn't papers and boxes in his office or in his living room. He was always going through something.

[Ryan Knudson]

How much mental space do you think it took up in his mind?

[Vicki Stokes]

A lot of it. I don't think a day went by he didn't think about it. It didn't worry him. He was, you know, he just worried about it. When he started, he started losing weight, and he just looked. He looked old. I mean, he looked older than his brothers. And I could tell by that that it was a lot of stress and strain. And I guess that's when I noticed what a toll it was. That's when I started telling him, you know, why don't you just let this thing go? And he said, you know, I've come too far. I can't let it go now. They need to fix it.

[Ryan Knudson]

And then in January of last year, a door plug blew off the side of a Boeing 737 Max. An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing. A passenger video taken on board the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane shows the gaping hole, the flight path. Even though it was a different type of plane and not produced at the South Carolina plant where he used to work. Barnett was furious.

[Vicki Stokes]

It was after that door blew out that he was very, very upset. We happened to go over there that day for something after the door, that door plug blew out, and he was angry. I mean, to the point he was slamming things around. He said, you know, somebody's kid could have been sitting in that seat or something. There was no reason for that to happen.

[Ryan Knudson]

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that bolts that should have held the door plug in place were missing. Boeing apologized and said it was working to fix its processes. About a month after the door plug blew out, Barnett's lawsuit against Boeing finally started picking up. Seven years after he left the company, he now had a trial date. And in February 2024, depositions were set to begin. So Barnett got in his truck, that orange Dodge ram, and drove 14 hours from his home in Pineville, Louisiana, to Charleston to give his testimony. When he arrived, he checked into a Holiday Inn just off the highway. But the night before Barnett's deposition was going to start, his lawyer, Rob says Boeing submitted a bunch of discovery documents that they'd never seen before. So Rob asked to postpone the proceedings so they could go over everything. Barnett talked on the phone to his mom, Vicki.

[Vicki Stokes]

He gave me a long explanation of they had postponed it and he had to be there another week. And so I talked to him then that Sunday, and he said, mom, I'm just going crazy sitting around in this room waiting on this and going through documents, going through paperwork.

[Ryan Knudson]

Barnett ended up staying in that hotel room for two weeks. And then on March 7, Barnett's deposition finally got underway. He would get to tell his whole story under oath, start to finish. Though the questioning was routine, his lawyer Rob, says it proved to be hard for him.

[Roy Irvin]

Well, the first day was Boeing's lawyers deposing him, and she was going in a whole litany of, of questions and repeating a lot of the questions over and over again, which John found to be pretty frustrating.

[Ryan Knudson]

Boeing's lawyers questioned him for about seven hours. They combed over the details of his complaints, his performance reviews, emails he exchanged with his managers. They asked whether his bosses were just trying to help him become a better colleague. When they told him to have more conversations face to face, it was clear.

[Roy Irvin]

That he was exhausted from the first day.

[Ryan Knudson]

The next day, it was his lawyer's turn to ask questions. And it was another intense day for Barnett.

[Roy Irvin]

And we got maybe four hours of questioning in, and we just had a few more, maybe an hour or two left. But we noticed that John was getting really tired and it was getting into late afternoon. So John had basically said that he was just ready to go back to Louisiana and asked if he could do that.

[Ryan Knudson]

But postponing the rest of the deposition would have pushed back the entire case. So Rob says Barnett agreed to come back again the next morning.

[Roy Irvin]

John basically didn't want to do anything that was going to delay the case and delay the trial date. I mean, he had waited so long to just get a trial date. So John said, all right, you know, we'll go forward. And so the next day we were going to resume the deposition at 10 o'clock in the morning.

[Ryan Knudson]

The next day, when Rob and the other lawyers were sitting around the deposition table, Barnett didn't show up.

[Roy Irvin]

So I called the hotel and asked whether or not John had checked out, and they said he had not. I asked him to try his room just to see if he's still there, and he wasn't. So finally I asked the hotel manager if she would check to see if his truck was still there, hoping that he was at least on its way. And she came back and she said the truck is still there. I called EMS, 911.

[Rodney Barnett]

What's the address of the emergency?

[Ryan Knudson]

301 Savannah Highway.

[Rodney Barnett]

Tell me exactly what happened. I just had a guest call in, or a gentleman call in wanting to.

[Ryan Knudson]

Do a wellness check on a room. We went up to the room, couldn't locate him, went out to go look at his vehicle, and the gentleman is.

[Vicki Stokes]

In the driver's seat.

[Ryan Knudson]

I'm not sure if he's unconscious or.

[Vicki Stokes]

Asleep, but he has a firearm in his hand.

[Ryan Knudson]

Rob raced to the Holiday Inn.

[Roy Irvin]

It was kind of a surreal scene, you know, with the emergency vehicles all surrounding John's car and not being able to find out through the emergency responders what was going on and what happened.

[Ryan Knudson]

What did you think when you heard that he was dead?

[Roy Irvin]

I mean, we were all devastated by it and, you know, it was just hard to know. I mean, we were just in shock, really.

[Ryan Knudson]

Back in Louisiana, Barnett's brother Rodney was outside mowing his lawn. A sheriff sped up his driveway and got out of the car.

[Rodney Barnett]

I said, well, what happened? He said, well, he's deceased. And I wouldn't. I wasn't expecting that. It took a while to sink in. I mean, you know, this happens, he's not going to be part of us physically anymore. So I had to make the calls to my mom and my brothers.

[Vicki Stokes]

I was in JCPenney's buying some tops, and one of my sons, Rodney, called. And he said, mom, where are you? And I said, I'm trying to buy me some clothes. And he said, well, the police just come by here. And I said, oh, my God, is it Mitch? And he said, yes. I said, rodney, is it bad? And he said, yes.

[Ryan Knudson]

Vicki left the store and met up with Rodney and her other son, Mike.

[Vicki Stokes]

And so when we got here and Mike got out of the car and I said, what happened? What happened? Where did he. He said, mama, he. He took his own life. And I just. I did not believe that. I mean, I. That was just. There was no way. I. I just did not believe that. I mean, it was just. It wasn't a good day.

[Ryan Knudson]

Why didn't you think. What did you think? You said you couldn't believe it. But why. Why was it so surprising to you that he'd taken his own life?

[Vicki Stokes]

Because I just wasn't like him. I mean, that's just. I could not believe, especially he was. He's fought this for eight years. He was right at the end, from what I understand. Another couple of hours, and it was done for him, you know, so why at that time would he do that? We. We just have a lot of questions about that.

[Ryan Knudson]

Do you remember the last conversation that you had with him?

[Vicki Stokes]

I went to his house before he left and hugged him, told him to be safe, all the things that Mama say, and told him not to worry, everything would be all right. And that was the last time I saw him. And if I'd have known that, I'd. I'd have hugged him a lot longer. But anyway, I'm sorry. Let me just take a minute.

[Ryan Knudson]

Barnett was found in his orange dodge ram around 10am with a gunshot wound to the head. From the hotel security footage, it appears he sat in his truck all night long, his brake lights flashing periodically throughout the night. The last Flash was around 7am it's impossible to know what exactly was on Barnett's mind that night, but in his truck, police found that piece of paper, the one with his handwriting all over. Said things like, quote, I can't do this any longer. Enough. Barnett also wrote that he wanted to be buried face down so that Boeing's leaders could, quote, kiss my ass. Police in the corner ruled his death a suicide.

[Rodney Barnett]

After seeing the kind of pressure that he was dealing with and he dealt with that. I mean, it was seven years after he retired. He dealt with that. He was under all that pressure and he held up as long as he could.

[Ryan Knudson]

Rodney says that through his brother's estate, the family is pursuing his whistleblower case against Boeing.

[Rodney Barnett]

We don't think they pulled the trigger. We think that if this would have been taken care of long time ago, when it should have been, and if Boeing had come forward and adhered to their procedures and policies, made sure that those aircraft were put together the way they should have been, we wouldn't have this discussion right now.

[Vicki Stokes]

He loved Boeing. He loved the company. He was, he was proud to work for him. In fact, I was telling somebody a while back when we started cleaning out his house, I couldn't believe that he still had his bow and shirts hanging in the cloths.

[Rodney Barnett]

It.

[Ryan Knudson]

There was one more thing the police found in their investigation of Barnett's death that seemed to say a lot about what he was going through. It's an email he sent to his lawyers in 2021. He wrote, quote, each time I do an interview, deposition or other stressful discussion on what happened with me and Boeing, I relive those years all over again. It puts me in a deep depression for a week or two depending on the intensity level of the discussion. I shut myself in. I don't want family or friends coming over. I'm angry at the world. In his email, Barnett was also trying to figure out how much compensation he wanted to sue Boeing for. He said it was easy to figure out the direct costs from retiring early for stuff like lost pay and lost bonuses. But quote, what I'm struggling with is how do you repair or restore a person's overall outlook on life. I used to be a very happy go lucky guy that loved his job, his company and the products they built. I had a very positive outlook on life. Boeing has absolutely destroyed my outlook on life. I often sit here and think, what's the use? What's the point of life? A person works hard all their life trying to do the right thing, treating others with respect just to have their entire professional life destroyed because they were doing as they were trained and expected to do. Follow the rules before we go. If you're considering self harm, help is available. Call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by texting or dialing 988. That's 988 that's all for today. Tuesday, February 18The Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. This episode was reported by me and Heather Rogers with help from Sharon Turlop and Andrew Tangle. Fact checking by Mary Mathis. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.