The curious case of Boeing whistleblowers dying

Amid increased scrutiny of their operations, the recent claim by 32 people that the company had retaliated against some of them after they blew the whistle, is further concerning.

A total of 32 individuals who were working with Boeing, the second-largest aerospace manufacturing company in the world, had complained to regulatory authorities that there had been retaliations against those who raised safety concerns against the company. Two of them have died recently.

Joshua Dean, who was a quality auditor for Spirit AeroSystems, a supplier of Boeing, passed away recently. Despite his healthy lifestyle, Dean went to a hospital a couple of weeks before his death as he was having trouble breathing. Later, he developed pneumonia and a bacterial infection, and hence could not be saved, according to The Seattle Times.

Dean had complained to the FAA on “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line” at Spirit.

Before Dean, another former Boeing employee-turned-whistleblower, 62-year-old John Barnett, was found dead in the US days after he gave evidence against the company's management.

The BBC had then revealed that in one of his interviews with the publication, Barnett had said regarding Boeing, "Under pressure workers deliberately fit sub-standard parts to aircraft on the production" and there are "serious problems with the oxygen system".

"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," Barnett also told the publication.

Amid increased scrutiny of their operations, the recent claim by 32 people that the company had retaliated against some of them after they blew the whistle, according to an Al Jazeera report, is further concerning.

Documents accessed by Al Jazeera have now revealed that Barnett was appealing the dismissal of one of his complaints by OSHA at the time of his death with a higher authority.

What catches one's eye in this situation is the fact that such production issues are not new for the company. A Washington Post report from 2019 reveals that a Federal Aviation Authority auditor had found a subcontractor of the company forging certificates for cargo doors for a huge number of 777. The auditor had alleged that this was going on for years.

In another case, the company's workers would leave tools close to cables controlling the aircraft's movement, thus risking safety of the hundreds of passengers onboard. Some would also install wires improperly in 787s, the report revealed.

The FAA had then said that safety lapses by the company would be identified repeatedly, but they would not act on the same despite promising to do so.

An email written by Emily Hargrove, the agency's chief of staff, has revealed that the team that deals with its public affairs had been “asking that we review the decision back in 2017 to dismiss the case (Barnett's)”.

“Jesse [Lawder, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Public Affairs] indicated the reasoning was because there wasn’t evidence that there was a violation of the underlying laws. Can we get a summary of that decision. He also is asking how often cases are dismissed based on that rationale. They also are asking if we made any safety and health issue referrals to FAA out of this complaint,” Hargrove had also written in her mail.

This is not the end. In April, Sam Salehpour, another Boeing whisteblower, told the US Congress that when he flagged safety issues to the company, it had asked him to "shut up". Salehpour further alleged that it was because of his questions that the company transferred him from the 787 to the 777 program.

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) also lodged a complaint with the US' National Labor Relations Board againsty Boeing in the same month.

It alleged that the company had retaliated against two of its employees by giving them negative reviews after they insisted that Boeing re-evaluate the engineering works that went into the 787 and 777 jets.

Boeing however denied the claims and said in a statement that it has "zero tolerance for retaliation and encourage our employees to speak up when they see an issue. After an extensive review of documentation and interviewing more than a dozen witnesses, our investigators found no evidence of retaliation or interference. We have determined the allegations are unsubstantiated."

The union had also revealed that the two engineers in question were FAA representatives, as the regulatory body often delegates oversight work to Boeing employees.

Boeing has been under constant scrutiny over the past few months since a door on one of their 737-9 MAX aircraft belonging to Alaska Airlines blew off.

Following this incident, a number of top airlines in the US and around the world decided to ground their 737-9 MAX planes, thus causing huge losses to the company. This further led to their CEO Dave Calhoun announcing that he will step down at the end of the ongoing year.