Boeing whistleblower John Barnett “didn’t seem depressed” at dinner on the evening before he was mysteriously found dead in his car with a gunshot wound to his head, sources told The Post.
Lawyers, family friends and witnesses all say the 62-year-old was upbeat about finishing off giving testimony against his former employer in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised suspicious as to whether he’d take his own life.
An employee who works at the Holiday Inn where Barnett was found dead in the parking lot told The Post Barnett ate a quesadilla, drank a Coke, scrolled on his phone and seemed fine on the evening of Feb. 8.
“I didn’t think of him at all until I heard the news the next day. He didn’t seem upset at all,” the employee told The Post.
Barnett was due to give a third day of closed-door testimony in his bombshell lawsuit against the jetliner giant the next morning but never showed.
His panicked lawyers raised the alarm, requesting the hotel check on him after he didn’t answer his phone.
Police then discovered his body on March 9 slumped over in his orange pickup with a silver gun still in his hand.
The Charleston County coroner initially noted the death as a “self-inflicted” wound, but said more tests are being done before a final determination. Police have made clear they are still actively investigating the death.
Sources have also told The Post Barnett’s car has been dusted inside and out for prints — an unusual meaure in a suicide case.
Family friend Bob Emery spoke to Barnett around two weeks before he died and said “he seemed too focused on what he was doing,” with the lawsuit and “didn’t seem depressed.”
Emery told The Post they had both lost their wives, himself more recently, and it was Barnett who was making calls and checking up on him to make sure he was OK.
“I lost my wife last year and he checked on me a lot,” Emery told The Post.
“I told him that I have good days and bad days. He said that’s to be expected, but as time passes, there would be more good days than bad days. He said he was doing well.”
“He had a good life going for him. Even with the problems at Boeing.”
Barnett’s wife, Diane Johnson — also a former Boeing worker, described in her obituary as having “enjoyed working on race cars with her husband” — died in 2022 following an undisclosed illness.
“He took Diane’s loss hard. They had gotten together later and he fully thought they were going to grow old together…but I felt like he had gotten through that,” Emery said.
“He definitely missed her a lot, but I didn’t think he was suicidal over her.”
Barnett was a quality control engineer who worked for Boeing for more than three decades before he retired in 2017.
Two years later told the BBC that Boeing cut corners by rushing to get its 787 Dreamliner jets off the production line and into service. He gave numerous interviews describing how he had complained internally to the company and they had not taken action, spurring him to go public, out of concern for public safety.
Barnett’s attorneys, Robert Turkewitz and Brian Knowles, expressed skepticism over the idea Barnett died by suicide in a statement released Tuesday.
“John was in the midst of a deposition in his whistleblower retaliation case, which finally was nearing the end.
“He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on. We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it,” read the written statement.
Emery said he would remember Barnett as a “solid guy” who “really friendly” and “generous”.
“He was always helping people. He had a dry sense of humor, he was very smart. You could tell that he was a thinker,” he said.
“John is someone who really didn’t like the attention. He probably never took a selfie in his life. He saw this as a noble thing he was doing.
“He didn’t do it to make a name for himself. He did interviews because he thought it would help keep people safe.”
Barnett loved working for Boeing until 2010 when he was transferred to Boeing’s 787 plant in Charleston, his family said Tuesday.
“Things greatly changed for him when he learned that upper management was pressuring the quality inspectors and managers to cut corners and to not follow processes and procedures which they were required by law to follow,” the family said.
They claimed Boeing pressured workers to look past defects to avoid slowing down the assembly line and those who refused “were labeled as trouble makers, retaliated against, and subjected to a hostile work environment.”
Boeing said in a statement to Ther Post: “We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
The Charleston Police Department did not return a request for comment.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.Today
