Joshua Dean was a former quality controller at Spirit AeroSystems, a supplier to Boeing. A whistleblower, the forty-year-old died on Tuesday April 30, 2024, following a devastating illness in two weeks.
He died on Tuesday April 30, 2024 of “sudden, rapidly spreading infection”reports the Seattle Times.
Joshua Dean, a former quality controller at Spirit AeroSystems, a Boeing supplier, was one of the first whistleblowers to claim that the plane parts maker’s management attempted to cover up manufacturing defects in the 737 MAX. He died of the disease in two weeks, at the age of 45, in critical condition, according to his aunt Carol Parsons, cited by the Seattle Times.
“He had difficulty breathing”
The latter says that he had gone to the hospital a little over two weeks earlier. “because he had difficulty breathing”. Intubated, he developed pneumonia, then a serious bacterial infection. His condition then deteriorated rapidly.
A scan also revealed that Joshua Dean had suffered a stroke. In the end, doctors considered amputating both hands and both feet. “What he experienced was brutal”his aunt told the Seattle Time. It broke my heart.”
In October 2022, Joshua Dean declared that he had discovered a serious manufacturing defect on the 737 MAX. He claimed that mechanics had incorrectly drilled the holes in the pressurization bulkheads, recalls The Parisian. The problem was publicly revealed in August 2023, a few months after Joshua Dean’s dismissal.
Suicide of a former Boeing employee
His death comes a few weeks after that of John Barnett. This former Boeing employee killed himself in the United States on Saturday March 9, 2024. A few days earlier, he had testified against the American aircraft manufacturer and warned about construction problems.
“Every day, we found things left in planes. In a 787, after a test flight, we found a ladder in the stabilizer. If it had fallen on the actuator system, the plane would have crashed. smoke”indicated John Barnett, by way of example, in the documentary “Downfall: the Boeing affair”streaming on Netflix in 2022.
Brian Knowles, the lawyer who represents the two victims, refuses to make a link between these two deaths.
