A second mysterious death of an official responsible for detecting defects in Boeing aircraft
Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, which supplies Boeing, and who was one of the first to report manufacturing defects in the 737 MAX, died after suffering a sudden and rapidly spreading bacterial infection.
According to US local The Seattle Times newspaper, Dean, (45), and lived in Kansas, was in good health and had no major health problems.
But in the last two weeks of his life, his condition suddenly deteriorated. Dean had complained to aviation regulators in the United States about problems in the Spirit 737 production line, and also testified in a lawsuit against the company’s shareholders.
The Seattle Times explained that Dean was taken to the hospital suffering from breathing problems, where he was diagnosed with a bacterial infection that led to organ failure.
He was fired from Spirit in April 2023, and filed a complaint with the Department of Labor alleging that his firing was in retaliation for reporting on aviation safety concerns.
Joshua Dean’s death follows the death of John Barnett, a former quality control engineer at Boeing, who was found dead in his car days after testifying in a lawsuit against the company.
Barnett, 62, had worked at Boeing for 32 years and retired in 2017.
Police found his body near a hotel in South Carolina, and announced that the cause of death was a self-inflicted wound, and the incident is still being investigated.
