A former employee of Boeing who became popular after raising concerns about the firm’s production standards has been found dead in the US sparking major concerns.
Before his retirement in 2017, John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years.
Africa Today News, New York reports that shortly 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.
It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating.
Before retiring from the US aircraft company in 2017 because to health issues, Mr. Barnett had worked there for 32 years.
He began his career in 2010 as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant that produces the 787 Dreamliner, a cutting-edge aircraft mostly utilised for long-haul flights.
In 2019, Mr Barnett told the BBC that under-pressure workers had been deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the production line.
He also said he had uncovered serious problems with oxygen systems, which could mean one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency.
He said soon after starting work in South Carolina he had become concerned that the push to get new aircraft built meant the assembly process was rushed and safety was compromised, something the company denied.
He later told the BBC that workers had failed to follow procedures intended to track components through the factory, allowing defective components to go missing.
He said in some cases, sub-standard parts had even been removed from scrap bins and fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays on the production line.
He also claimed that tests on emergency oxygen systems due to be fitted to the 787 showed a failure rate of 25%, meaning that one in four could fail to deploy in a real-life emergency.