John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.

In the days 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. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.

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

  • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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    8 months ago

    They should really make some sort of incentive to keep these people alive. Like if a whistle blower dies before the verdict of the trial/hearing make it an automatic assumption and multiply the punishment by 3 times (Treble!). Then you would have companies doing everything to not have whistle blowers die, not what we have today.

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Your competitors take out contract hits against your whistleblower and you need to have bodyguards to protect them.

      And then your head of security and the whistleblower fall in love until at the end of the movie the competitor assassin gets into the court waiting room and the head of security throws themselves into the ninja star’s way and dies in the whistleblower’s arms as the ultimate sacrifice is made for love and corporate profits.

      I tear up just thinking about it.

    • aidan@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      They do have an disincentive, its called decades in jail if its discovered you kill him.

      • genie@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Exactly this. In a fucked up way a rule like that would actually incentivise whistleblowers to become martyrs.

          • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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            8 months ago

            Then they’d be interested to hire him all kinds of councilors and security guards so that he doesn’t kill himself.

                • aidan@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Because don’t you think that in itself is a form of witness intimidation? Won’t people be hesitant to volunteer to testify during a lengthy trial if it means a security guard literally watching them sleep and shower for months.

                  • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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                    8 months ago

                    I meant not that the witness would be obligated to accept that, but that a company would be interested to offer to pay for various measures to preserve their health, sanity and all that.

      • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Step 1: Short company stocks Step 2: kill witness against the company Step 3: profit.

        Just one example of that being a terrible idea

    • GroteStreet 🦘@aussie.zone
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      8 months ago

      Or, short of that… If you’re whistleblowing on Boeing, you should go to Airbus and Lockheed and tell them, “it’s in your best interest that I stay breathing”.