Second Boeing Whistleblower Dies Amid Controversy Over Plane Maker’s Practices

A Boeing whistleblower died on Tuesday morning in Wichita, Kansas. Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, a Boeing supplier, died after a two-week hospitalization due to a battle with a sudden and severe infection.

Dean’s family shared that he had been in good health and was known for his healthy lifestyle before he succumbed to the sudden infection.

Dean had come forward in early 2023 and made serious allegations against Spirit AeroSystems that the leadership had ignored crucial manufacturing defects on the Boeing 737 Max model. His act resulted in his termination from his job at Spirit in April 2023.

Dean’s demise marks the second death of a Boeing whistleblower in recent months; in March, John Barnett died in an apparent suicide amid his deposition against Boeing.

Boeing, one of the two largest plane manufacturers in the world, has been under heightened scrutiny since the beginning of 2024. Company executives were compelled to testify at a Senate hearing in mid-April to address concerns about whether the corporate culture prioritized cost-cutting measures over safety in the production of aircraft like the 787 Dreamliner and the 777.

After he was fired from Spirit, Dean filed a complaint with the Department of Labor and asserted that his termination was a direct result of his raising of serious safety concerns. He also gave a deposition in a shareholder lawsuit against Spirit and voiced his grievances about the 737 production line to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

In response to Dean’s concerns, the FAA conducted an investigation and later sent him a letter in November that indicated they had completed their assessment of the safety issues he had raised. However, whether the FAA made an official conclusion about Dean’s allegations remains unclear.

In March 2024, the FBI began to investigate the Alaska Airlines flight in January in which a door plug blew off the plane in the middle of a flight and alerted passengers they were all “a possible victim of a crime.”

Brian Knowles, the lawyer who represented both Dean and Barnett, said in a statement, “Whistleblowers are needed. They bring to light wrongdoing and corruption in the interests of society. It takes a lot of courage to stand up… It’s a difficult set of circumstances. Our thoughts now are with John’s family and Josh’s family.”