Boeing whistleblower John Barnett made grim prediction before mysterious death

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: Boeing whistleblower John Barnett reportedly told a family friend, "If anything happens, it's not suicide," expressing grave fears that he might not survive after reporting safety issues with the massive airliner.

The same day Barnett, 62, was scheduled to wrap up his closed-door testimony in a lawsuit brought against his former employer, he was discovered dead in his pickup truck in a hotel parking lot in Charleston, South Carolina.

Friends and family of John Barnett expressed doubts about suicide

The initial official cause of death for Barnett, which is still being investigated by authorities, was declared a "self-inflicted" gunshot wound to the head.

However, friends, family, and attorneys for Barnett have expressed doubts about whether the former Boeing quality control engineer committed suicide.

“I know that he did not commit suicide. There’s no way,” ABC 4 was informed by a family friend named Jennifer.

The friend said that when Barnett began publicly discussing his safety concerns related to Boeing after his retirement in 2017, he told her he might die.

“He wasn’t concerned about [his own] safety because I asked him,” Jennifer told the outlet. “I said, ‘Aren’t you scared?’ And he said, ‘No, I ain’t scared, but if anything happens to me, it’s not suicide.'”

It wasn't immediately clear when the conversation occurred. Jennifer claimed that during that same conversation, they had discussed his impending deposition in the Boeing legal drama.

The friend claims to have last seen Barnett as a pallbearer at her father's funeral in late February. She believes that someone "didn't like what he had to say" and wished to "shut him up." “That’s why they made it look like a suicide,” Jennifer claimed in the interview.

In response to The Post's request for comment regarding the friend's allegations, Boeing did not answer right away. In a statement released earlier this week, Barnett's lawyers stated that "John was in the midst of a deposition in his whistleblower retaliation case, which finally was nearing the end."

They also shared their doubts about the claim that Barnett committed suicide, New York Post reported.

“He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on. We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it,” the attorneys, Robert Turkewitz and Brian Knowles, remarked.

John Barnett found dead in a truck with gunshot wound

On March 9, when Barnett's lawyers couldn't get in touch with him over the phone, they requested a welfare check, and that's when an employee at the Holiday Inn, where the former Boeing employee had been staying, found his body.

As per the police report, Barnett was found slumped over in the truck, clutching a pistol, with a gunshot wound to his head.

He was involved in an ongoing legal dispute with Boeing at the time of his death, having filed a government whistleblower complaint about what he believed to be significant safety defects.

Before his retirement, Barnett spent more than thirty years working for Boeing as a quality control engineer.

After two years, he began making a series of accusations in media appearances, claiming that Boeing had made compromises to get its 787 Dreamliner aircraft off the assembly line and into service sooner than planned.

After his purported suicide, Barnett "made powerful enemies," according to Boeing employees who spoke with The New York Post. His death is still being looked into.

Boeing issued a statement following his passing that said, in essence, “We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”