Archive link for those who prefer not to sign up to read Summary: an overview of the management shifts that eroded Boeing's ability to deal with production problems and produce safe aircraft,...
Archive link for those who prefer not to sign up to read
Summary: an overview of the management shifts that eroded Boeing's ability to deal with production problems and produce safe aircraft, based largely on the material produced by John "Swampy" Barnett before he died.
It's a long but detailed read. I found it informative.
There have been a couple of other articles posted in this vein. A notable discussion point I recall from one of them was that there was nothing to indicate foul play in Barnett's death. While no direct evidence of such is offered in the article, it is worth noting he was in the middle of his whistleblower testimony when he died. The relevant portion is quoted below:
By now you know what became of Swampy: He was found dead a few weeks ago with a gunshot wound to his right temple, “apparently” self-inflicted, on what was meant to be the third day of a three-day deposition in his whistleblower case against his former employer; his amended complaint, which his lawyer released last week, is the basis for much of this story.
It is worth noting here that Swampy’s former co-workers universally refuse to believe that their old colleague killed himself. One former co-worker who was terrified of speaking publicly went out of their way to tell me that they weren’t suicidal. “If I show up dead anytime soon, even if it’s a car accident or something, I’m a safe driver, please be on the lookout for foul play.” Swampy’s wife Diane, who worked at Boeing for 28 years, died of brain cancer at age 60 in late 2022.
Discussing Swampy’s death and the whistleblower lawsuit he left behind, the longtime former Boeing executive told me, “I don’t think one can be cynical enough when it comes to these guys.” Did that mean he thought Boeing assassinated Swampy? “It’s a top-secret military contractor, remember; there are spies everywhere,” he replied. More importantly, he added, “there is a principle in American law that there is no such thing as an accidental death during the commission of a felony. Let’s say you rob a bank and while traveling at high speed in the getaway you run down a pedestrian and kill them. That’s second-degree murder at the very least.”
FYI, you don't actually have to sign up to read the article. You just have to click the X on the top left of the registration nag screen. Appreciate the mirror nonetheless though. :)
FYI, you don't actually have to sign up to read the article. You just have to click the X on the top left of the registration nag screen. Appreciate the mirror nonetheless though. :)
While I obviously find the death very suspicious, I think that people underestimate the possibility of suicide. Like, losing his wife, older age, and testifying against his former employer and...
While I obviously find the death very suspicious, I think that people underestimate the possibility of suicide. Like, losing his wife, older age, and testifying against his former employer and possibly being put through the ringer in his deposition... Shit can get dark. Maybe he suddenly had a revelation and decided he had an out.
Like, there's enough to cast suspicion on Boeing either way but for the guy to say "Well, they're a top secret contractor!" as if that means they've got an Agent 47 on payroll. Sorry guys, Canon has military contacts as well, doesn't mean they're out there killing people. Now, KBR and Blackwater(Xe, Academi, Constellis) probably have bodies in their closet but between Lockheed, Bell, BAE, Northrop, and more don't think that they're going to be ordering hits based on a whistleblower complaint that they can basically ignore on the military side.
Well, except now that the AH-64s keep falling out of the sky...
People rarely seem to believe in suicide. I think we regularly find it easier to believe that someone we cared about was murdered than that they intentionally took their own life. It’s simpler...
People rarely seem to believe in suicide. I think we regularly find it easier to believe that someone we cared about was murdered than that they intentionally took their own life. It’s simpler that way. I’ve seen it happen before in real life in situations where any sort of conspiracy is incredibly unlikely but people will start insisting it was a staged suicide because “they just didn’t seem like the type”. Well, regularly the people who I know who did kill themselves beyond a shadow of a doubt also “didn’t seem like the type”. We tend to expect that we can know what goes on with other people on their deepest levels and we’re regularly wrong.
Now I never knew John, and I’m not part of the high levels of Boeing or the government or anywhere else really. So maybe they did kill him. But I have lost a lot of people to suicide and watched people kick into gear with the “they must have been murdered” stuff in situations where that seemed obviously to not be the case.
What an absolutely tragic story. I've been in a situation where my job was my absolute pride and most of my identity. I, too, saw it corrupted, but not nearly to this degree or with this level of...
What an absolutely tragic story. I've been in a situation where my job was my absolute pride and most of my identity. I, too, saw it corrupted, but not nearly to this degree or with this level of overt malfeasance. I can't imagine the pain it must have caused Swampy, suicide or no.
I hope there is some justice, but I'm not naive enough to believe there will be. C-suite should be in jail for this.
"If you want to fight the drug problem, start executing the bankers who launder the drug money." - George Carlin
Makes me think of this situation https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Karen-Silkwood-Kerr-McGee-Plutonium/dp/080148667X where Karen Silkwood was involved in a mysterious car accident and investigators...
where Karen Silkwood was involved in a mysterious car accident and investigators turned up including a mysterious secret agent posting as a journalist. There never was clear proof there was a murder but stranger and stranger facts got discovered and eventually Kerr-McGee settled out of course although in that case the charges could be satisfied so long as Silkwood’s death had something to do with her employment.
Could someone with tagging power add the "john barnett" tag to this so it will show up with other articles posted about him? Please tag this comment as noise afterward.
Could someone with tagging power add the "john barnett" tag to this so it will show up with other articles posted about him? Please tag this comment as noise afterward.
Apropos:
"We'll go down in history as the first society that wouldn't save itself because it wasn't cost-effective."
—Kurt Vonnegut
Coming true when you connect it to climate change
Archive link for those who prefer not to sign up to read
Summary: an overview of the management shifts that eroded Boeing's ability to deal with production problems and produce safe aircraft, based largely on the material produced by John "Swampy" Barnett before he died.
It's a long but detailed read. I found it informative.
There have been a couple of other articles posted in this vein. A notable discussion point I recall from one of them was that there was nothing to indicate foul play in Barnett's death. While no direct evidence of such is offered in the article, it is worth noting he was in the middle of his whistleblower testimony when he died. The relevant portion is quoted below:
FYI, you don't actually have to sign up to read the article. You just have to click the X on the top left of the registration nag screen. Appreciate the mirror nonetheless though. :)
While I obviously find the death very suspicious, I think that people underestimate the possibility of suicide. Like, losing his wife, older age, and testifying against his former employer and possibly being put through the ringer in his deposition... Shit can get dark. Maybe he suddenly had a revelation and decided he had an out.
Like, there's enough to cast suspicion on Boeing either way but for the guy to say "Well, they're a top secret contractor!" as if that means they've got an Agent 47 on payroll. Sorry guys, Canon has military contacts as well, doesn't mean they're out there killing people. Now, KBR and Blackwater(Xe, Academi, Constellis) probably have bodies in their closet but between Lockheed, Bell, BAE, Northrop, and more don't think that they're going to be ordering hits based on a whistleblower complaint that they can basically ignore on the military side.
Well, except now that the AH-64s keep falling out of the sky...
People rarely seem to believe in suicide. I think we regularly find it easier to believe that someone we cared about was murdered than that they intentionally took their own life. It’s simpler that way. I’ve seen it happen before in real life in situations where any sort of conspiracy is incredibly unlikely but people will start insisting it was a staged suicide because “they just didn’t seem like the type”. Well, regularly the people who I know who did kill themselves beyond a shadow of a doubt also “didn’t seem like the type”. We tend to expect that we can know what goes on with other people on their deepest levels and we’re regularly wrong.
Now I never knew John, and I’m not part of the high levels of Boeing or the government or anywhere else really. So maybe they did kill him. But I have lost a lot of people to suicide and watched people kick into gear with the “they must have been murdered” stuff in situations where that seemed obviously to not be the case.
What an absolutely tragic story. I've been in a situation where my job was my absolute pride and most of my identity. I, too, saw it corrupted, but not nearly to this degree or with this level of overt malfeasance. I can't imagine the pain it must have caused Swampy, suicide or no.
I hope there is some justice, but I'm not naive enough to believe there will be. C-suite should be in jail for this.
"If you want to fight the drug problem, start executing the bankers who launder the drug money." - George Carlin
Makes me think of this situation
https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Karen-Silkwood-Kerr-McGee-Plutonium/dp/080148667X
where Karen Silkwood was involved in a mysterious car accident and investigators turned up including a mysterious secret agent posting as a journalist. There never was clear proof there was a murder but stranger and stranger facts got discovered and eventually Kerr-McGee settled out of course although in that case the charges could be satisfied so long as Silkwood’s death had something to do with her employment.
Could someone with tagging power add the "john barnett" tag to this so it will show up with other articles posted about him? Please tag this comment as noise afterward.
Done!