A second Boeing whistleblower has died after a sudden illness.
Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, has claimed that the company’s leadership ignored production flaws in Boeing’s 737 MAX. Spirit AeroSystems is a Boeing supplier.
Related posts
Before his “sudden” death on Tuesday due to a fast-moving virus, Dean, 45, led an active lifestyle and was believed to be in good condition. According to Fox59, he contracted Influenza B and MRSA before developing pneumonia.
According to The Seattle Times, he died in Oklahoma on Tuesday after being in serious condition for two weeks.
“My gorgeous brother Joshua left this morning and is now with our baby brother.” I’m not sure how much more my family can take. “I don’t know how much more I can take,” his sister, Taylor Rae Roberts, posted on Facebook.
“Our thoughts are with Josh Dean and his family. “This unexpected loss is devastating news for us and his loved ones,” said Spirit representative Joe Buccino.
Dean, from Wichita, is the second whistleblower to die this year after speaking out about safety concerns in the aviation manufacturing industry. In March, authorities discovered John Barnett, 62, a Boeing whistleblower, dead in his pickup in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina.
The whistleblower’s death is the latest in a series of incidents involving troubled Boeing over the past year. In January, a door plug on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 blew out in midair, prompting the FAA to stop all 171 MAX 9 jets and launch an investigation.
Soon after, at least four people came forward—including both of the now-deceased whistleblowers—to claim that corner cutting in the jets’ production process was putting lives at risk. Following the disarray, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced in March that he would step down at the end of this year. Boeing reported a net loss of $355 million in the first quarter of 2024.
Joshua Dean came out to raise concerns about airplane safety. He filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration, alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line” at Spirit.
He also provided testimony in a December 2023 shareholder case against Spirit AeroSystems. According to Supply Chain Dive, the shareholders claimed that Spirit “concealed from investors that Spirit suffered from widespread and sustained quality failures” and that “quality failures” happened because the company was chasing profits.
“Such constant quality failures resulted in part from Spirit’s culture, which prioritized production numbers and short-term financial outcomes over product quality, and Spirit’s related failure to hire sufficient personnel to deliver quality products at the rates demanded by Spirit and its customers, including Boeing,” the attorneys for the plaintiffs said.
Those “quality failures” were so severe that Boeing placed Spirit AeroSystems on probation from 2018 to at least 2021, preventing the supplier from shipping parts to Boeing without managerial clearance, the lawsuit claims.
Dean told the Wall Street Journal in January that Spirit Aerosystems fired him for pointing out incorrectly drilled holes in airplane fuselages. Spirit Aerosystems fired him in April 2023, a move he later claimed was motivated by revenge.
Dean continued, “Spirit knows that if you make too much noise and cause too much trouble, they will move you.” “It doesn’t mean you completely disregard stuff, but they don’t want you to find everything and write it up.”
Spirit AeroSystems told the WSJ that it disagreed with Dean’s assessment and would defend itself in court.
Other members of Dean’s family expressed their grief on social media. On April 20, Jenny Dean, Dean’s aunt, shared a message from his mother, Ginger Green, revealing that he was battling Influenza B and MRSA in the hospital.
“My son is struggling for life. He tested positive for influenza B and MRSA, which developed into pneumonia. His sickness expanded across his entire body, including his bloodstream. Dean’s mother wrote, “His lungs are completely white, and they had to intubate him.”
“His condition deteriorated, necessitating his transfer to a hospital in Oklahoma City. He is currently undergoing dialysis due to excessive fluid accumulation in his body, and his kidneys and liver are not functioning properly.”
His attorney, Brian Knowles, told The Seattle Times that he did not want to speculate on the circumstances surrounding his client’s death but emphasized the necessity of whistleblowers.
Whistleblowers are needed. They expose wrongdoing and corruption in order to benefit society. It takes a lot of bravery to stand up,” Mr. Knowles explained. “These are difficult situations. Our thoughts are now with John’s and Josh’s families.
The attorney also represented Barnett, who had spoken out about suspected safety issues at Boeing and was giving testimony in a lawsuit against the firm before his death. Barnett said that Boeing purposefully utilized defective equipment in its flights and warned that passengers on the 787 Dreamliner could run out of oxygen if there was a violent decompression.
Barnett was a former quality control engineer who worked for Boeing for 32 years until retiring for health reasons in March 2017.
Barnett testified just days before his death in March at a Charleston motel. The Charleston County coroner confirmed to BBC News that a self-inflicted gunshot wound appeared to be the cause of his death.
