After half a decade of trying to blow the whistle, he was finally making serious progress, as Boeing’s own planes keep falling apart because of the exact same shoddy practices Barnett has been trying to tell everyone about.

Then, he inexplicably “self-inflicts” a fatal wound just as his lawsuit starts getting serious traction. This dude was straight-up murdered, and we’re all going to act like that didn’t happen, even though it obviously did.

Being a whistle-blower must be depressing, always killing themselves like this. /s

Apparent self-inflicted wound, found in his truck outside the hotel he was staying at while he was testifying.

Will no-one rid me of this troublesome whistleblower?

This is insanity. There needs to be a fully resourced investigation into this plus forced government takeover of Boeing if evidence is found of their involvement. This going unpunished would be so incredibly damaging to society not to mention a total perversion of justice.

It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating.

People want to see a conspiracy and a murder here, but it’s well known that being a whistleblower can be incredibly stressful. The US government says:

Practice self-care and stress-reducing activities throughout your whistleblowing process. It is common to experience toxic forms of retaliation – from professional isolation to gaslighting (manipulating someone by psychological means into questioning their own sanity) – which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or even thoughts of harm.

https://whistleblower.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/whistleblower.house.gov/files/whistleblower_survival_tips.pdf

Research papers have shown the same thing:

About 85% suffered from severe to very severe anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity and distrust, agoraphobia symptoms, and/or sleeping problems, and 48% reached clinical levels of these specific mental health problems. These specific mental health problems were much more prevalent than among the general population.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6604402/

I can’t remember where I saw it, but a while ago I saw or read an interview with a representative for a group that was famous for working with whistleblowers, something like the ACLU or EFF or something. Even though you’d expect that they’d really encourage whistleblowers, they said the opposite. They said that being a whistleblower is basically going to destroy your life. It’s going to ruin lifelong friendships. You’re going to be incredibly stressed. You’ll probably be blacklisted from your chosen field of employment even if your claims save lives and are proven to be true. So, they asked anybody who wanted to be a whistleblower to think about it and if they were absolutely sure to come back and talk to them again.

I mean, I am fully behind how suspicious this looks, but also… fuck me, getting help as a whistleblower or anyone involved in major accidents due to lax safety standards in the maximisation of profits is a horrible process. It’s no wonder that people wash out, drop out, or end themselves. (in general, not in this particular case)

I mean if nothing else you live with guilt as you constantly ask yourself whether you could have done more or sooner to prevent a few hundred people being dead, you are blacklisted from the industry, and you get sued by the company so now you have to defend yourself in court despite not having a job. No wonder people end up depressed. Reminds me of that pilot who ditched a plane. Yeah they made mistaked, but OTOH the pilot himself once in the actual accident also displayed heroic efforts in saving people’s lives. Still, he never flew again. Haunts you I imagine. And it’s not like stricter standards and better safety margins wouldn’t have trivially avoided their crash long before the pilots had any input.

I’d bet a fully functioning and safe Boeing passenger plane (rare collectors item) that this was a hit.