ExclusiveAnother Boeing Whistleblower Died! #frontpageshow #frontpageexclusive

A Boeing whistleblower who raised the alarm about a supplier who ignored defects in producing 737 Max jets died suddenly. Joshua Dean, a quality auditor at the supplier Sprint Aerosystems, previously said that he was fired in April of 2023. This was after he questioned standards at Boeing's manufacturing plant in Kansas. The door plug that blew out of an Alaska airline flight in January was manufactured by Sprint. Earlier this year, Dean told NPR in an interview, I think they were sending out a message to anybody else. If you are too loud, we will silence you. However, Dean's family said on social media that he died on Tuesday after a sudden illness. Dean's aunt, Carol Parsons, confirmed his death in a series of Facebook posts. Parsons said that Dean went to a hospital after experiencing breathing difficulties. Doctors found that Dean contracted MRSA and tested positive for influenza B. A further scan found that he had also suffered a stroke. In January, Dean told the Wall Street Journal that he was fired because he pointed out that holes were wrongly drilled in a fuselage. This was something that Sprint denied. Dean said it's known on Sprint that if you make too much noise and cause too much trouble, you will be moved. It doesn't mean you completely disregard stuff, but they don't want you to find everything and write it up. Dean also described a pizza party that was held at the Wichita plant. The party was to celebrate a decline in the number of reported defects. He said that chatter at the meal quickly turned to the observation that the gains were due only to underreporting problems, not the decline of problems. Dean said in his NPR interview, we're having a pizza party because we're lowering defects, but we're not lowering defects. We just ain't reporting them. You know what I mean? Dean's complaints were included in a shareholder lawsuit that was filed against Sprint in December. The lawsuit alleged that the company failed to disclose defects. However, Sprint strongly denied the allegations in the lawsuit and said that it remains focused on the quality of each aircraft that leaves their facilities. Boeing also has long denied Dean's and other whistleblowers claims that the company ignored safety warnings. In March, another Boeing whistleblower, John Barnett, apparently took his own life while a legal action was ongoing against Boeing. They say that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, Barnett's friends claim that he had told them, if anything happens to me, it's not suicide.