Friday, May 3, 2024 - A Boeing airlines whistleblower who raised concerns about one of the aircraft carrier’s suppliers ignoring production defects died suddenly on Tuesday, April 30 — just two months after another employee who sounded the alarm about the company died by alleged suicide.
Joshua Dean, 45, a former quality auditor at Spirit
AeroSystems, died Tuesday morning from a mystery infection, the Seattle Times
reported.
Dean, from Wichita, (pictured above) had reportedly been in
good health until about two weeks ago, when he was admitted to the hospital,
the outlet reported.
However, by April 21 he was in “very critical condition,”
and had tested positive for influenza B, MRSA, and pneumonia, the outlet said.
He was intubated and put on dialysis before eventually being
airlifted to another hospital in Oklahoma City.
A CT scan indicated that he had also suffered a stroke.
Shortly before his death, doctors were considering
amputating his hands and feet, which had turned black from infection to the
shock of his family and doctors.
“He is in the worst condition
I have ever known or heard of. Even the hospital agrees,” his sister-in-law,
Kristen Dean, wrote on Facebook Saturday, before detailing the life-saving
procedures doctors were trying to save him.
His family then announced that he died Tuesday morning.
Dean had raised the alarm about defects while working at
Spirit Aerosystems, a Kansas-based company which manufactures aircraft parts
for Boeing in 2022. Less than a year later he was fired.
“I think they were sending
out a message to anybody else,” Dean later told NPR of his firing. “If you are
too loud, we will silence you.”
Dean, who had been at Spirit since 2019 as a quality
auditor, raised concerns about improperly drilled bulkhead holes on parts for
Boeing 373 Max planes, according to the Seattle Times. He claimed flagging the
issue with his management had no effect on the company's plans or production
and nothing changed.
He has said his focus on the improperly drilled parts caused
him to miss another issue with fittings between the vertical tail fin to the
fuselage of the aircraft, which was later discovered and led to his being
fired.
The issues with the improper drilling were later
acknowledged by Spirit Aerosystems. Both issues caused delays at Boeing
manufacturing plants.
Dean who provided testimony he and other workers were told
to downplay any problems they identified, filed a complaint with the Federal
Aviation Administration which claimed he was scapegoated in Spirit’s effort to
keep the Boeing production issues secret.
In November 2023, he also filed a complaint with the Department of Labor on the grounds of wrongful termination.
That case was still pending at the time of his death, the
outlet said.
Dean’s death comes less than two months after Boeing
whistleblower John Barnett died from an alleged self-inflicted gunshot wound in
March.
His death is still under investigation by the local police
after Barnett’s lawyers raised the alarm, saying “we didn’t see any indication
he would take his own life … no one can believe it,” and urging a thorough
investigation.
The same lawyer, Brian Knowles, was also representing Dean.
He told TIME: “Josh’s passing
is a loss to the aviation community and the flying public.
“He possessed tremendous
courage to stand up for what he felt was true and right and raised quality and
safety issues,” Knowles added.
When asked if he agreed with the growing theories linking
his clients’ back-to-back deaths, Knowles said he “would like to see the
evidence from the investigating authorities.”
“What society does not need is people in fear to speak up,”
he noted.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
0 Comments