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Family of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett accuse it of hounding him before he committed suicide

The family of a former Boeing quality control manager who police say killed himself after lawyers questioned him for days about his whistleblowing on alleged jumbo jet defects are suing the aviation giant.

Boeing subjected John Barnett to a "campaign of harassment, abuse and intimidation intended to discourage, discredit and humiliate him until he would either give up or be discredited," lawyers for the family wrote in a wrongful death lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in South Carolina.

Barnett, 62, shot himself March 9, 2024, in Charleston after answering questions from attorneys for several days in relation to a defamation lawsuit he had filed against Boeing. He lived in Louisiana.

"Boeing had threatened to break John, and break him it did," the attorneys wrote in court papers on behalf of his family.

Boeing has not yet responded in court filings.

"We are saddened by John Barnett's death and extend our condolences to his family," the company said in a statement this week.

Barnett was a Boeing employee for 32 years, working as a quality-control manager before he retired in 2017. In the years after that, he shared his concerns with journalists and became a whistleblower.

"John became concerned when he transferred to Boeing's South Carolina plant in 2010 — quality issues, procedures that wasn't