Another Boeing Whistleblower Died Suspiciously. This Time a 45 Year Old Guy Who "Died Suddenly From a Rare Infection"

Seattle Times - Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and one of the first whistleblowers to allege Spirit leadership had ignored manufacturing defects on the 737 MAX, died Tuesday morning after a struggle with a sudden, fast-spreading infection. 

Known as Josh, Dean lived in Wichita, Kan., where Spirit is based. He was 45, had been in good health and was noted for having a healthy lifestyle.

He died after two weeks in critical condition, his aunt Carol Parsons said.

Spirit spokesperson Joe Buccino said: “Our thoughts are with Josh Dean’s family. This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones.”

Dean had given a deposition in a Spirit shareholder lawsuit and also filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line” at Spirit.

Spirit fired Dean in April 2023, and he had filed a complaint with the Department of Labor alleging his termination was in retaliation for raising concerns related to aviation safety.

Parsons said Dean became ill and went to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing just over two weeks ago. He was intubated and developed pneumonia and then a serious bacterial infection, MRSA.

Dean was represented by a law firm in South Carolina that also represented Boeing whistleblower John “Mitch” Barnett.

This whole thing stinks to high fuckin heavens.

For reference, here's a picture of Joshua Dean (r.i.p.).

Boeing, a company that has faced its fair share of turbulence, recent events suggest they might also be dabbling in the dark arts of whistleblower silencing. Or so the pattern disturbingly implies. (If you're a crazy conspiracy theorist.) 

Two months ago it was the dubious suicide of whistleblower John Burnett. You remember this guy. 

He was down in South Carolina visiting his attorneys, giving testimony for the DOJ's case. Opposing attorneys asked him to extend his trip by a day and come back for continued deposition. Boom. The night he was originally supposed to be home, he's found dead behind the wheel in his hotel parking lot. 

His lawyers, family, and closest friends all maintain John "loved life", thought he was doing a noble thing that would help save people's lives, and "would never kill himself". But none of that matters because the investigators and coroner ruled John killed himself.

Now today we have the tragic tale of Joshua Dean, a former auditor for Spirit AeroSystems, who was so inconveniently struck down by a mysterious, fast-growing infection just as he was shining a light on some serious production defects. Dean, a whistleblower who had accused Spirit of turning a blind eye to flaws in Boeing's 737 MAX production, suddenly died  from what sounds like a medical episode straight out of a medical thriller novel. Influenza B, MRSA, pneumonia, a stroke, and a rapid decline that even Hollywood scriptwriters would call a bit too dramatic.

 As if ripped from the pages of a conspiracy theorist's diary, Dean's death is eerily timed. What a coincidence, right? Two whistleblowers, two mysterious deaths, all within the span of a few months.

Now, I'm not saying Boeing has a secret squad silencing whistleblowers—but if they did, they might need to brainstorm some less conspicuous methods. Because let's be real, the timing here would make even the most skeptical raise an eyebrow.

Let’s also take a moment to appreciate the beautiful, almost poetic words from Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing every time a tragedy occurs: "Our thoughts are with the family." Touching, truly. It's the kind of generic corporate empathy you can set your watch to, appearing promptly after every questionable incident.

Let’s also not overlook the legal battles and the claims of being scapegoated for flagging critical safety issues. Dean wasn’t just playing whistleblower; he was playing in a league where the stakes are as high as they get. Fucking with the Federal Government's pet, a megacorporation with federal contracts is the definition of "rocking the boat".

Dean, a mechanical engineer, began working at Spirit in 2019. He was laid off the next year following pandemic-related job cuts and returned to Spirit in May 2021 as a quality auditor.

In October 2022, Dean said he found a serious manufacturing defect: mechanics improperly drilling holes in the aft pressure bulkhead of the MAX. When he flagged this issue with management, he said nothing was done.

Focused on those defects, he said he missed during that same audit a separate manufacturing flaw in the fittings that attach the vertical tail fin to the fuselage. When that was discovered in April and caused a delivery pause at Boeing’s Renton plant, Dean was fired.

With that discovery, Dean filed a safety complaint with the FAA. He said Spirit had used him as a scapegoat and had lied to the FAA about the aft pressure bulkhead defects.

“After I was fired, Spirit AeroSystems [initially] did nothing to inform the FAA, and the public” about their knowledge of the aft pressure bulkhead defects, he wrote in his complaint.

In November, the FAA sent Dean a letter stating that it had completed an investigation of the safety issues he had flagged. The letter cloaks the outcome though it seems to confirm that his allegations had substance.

“The investigation determined that your allegations were appropriately addressed under an FAA-approved safety program,” the FAA wrote. “However, due to the privacy provisions of those programs, specific details cannot be released.”

After a panel blew off a Boeing 737 MAX plane in January, bringing new attention to the quality lapses at Spirit, one of Dean’s former Spirit colleagues confirmed some of Dean’s allegations.

If Boeing were a character in a crime drama, they’d be the suspicious character with too much power and something sinister to hide. The type that makes viewers scream at their TVs, "Just connect the dots, already!" Whether Boeing is really silencing its critics or just incredibly unlucky in its associations, one thing is clear here, in the court of public opinion, those of us not named John Feitelberg, and for those of us with brains and common sense, this whole thing seems sketchy as hell. And it has for years now.