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A second Boeing whistleblower has died suddenly and under mysterious circumstances after discussing the possible causes of safety failures on multiple passenger jets.
Joshua Dean, 45, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, died Tuesday morning after being hospitalized with a sudden, fast-spreading Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) staph infection.
Dean had reportedly been in good health until about two weeks ago, but the infection rapidly ravaged his body, leaving him in critical condition for days.
The Seattle Times reports that Dean had given a deposition and also filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line.”
He was then fired in April 2023 and filed a complaint with the Department of Labor claiming he was terminated in retaliation for raising safety concerns.
“After I was fired, Spirit AeroSystems [initially] did nothing to inform the FAA, and the public” about the safety issues, he wrote in his FAA complaint.
Dean’s aunt Carol Parsons told the Seattle Times that things got so bad for him at the end that a CT scan indicated he had suffered a stroke, he had tested positive for influenza B, MRSA, and pneumonia, and that doctors were considering amputating both hands and both feet which had turned black from the infection.
“He is in the worst condition I have ever known or heard of. Even the hospital agrees,” his sister-in-law Kristen Dean wrote on Facebook.
Two months ago, another Boeing whistleblower, John Barnett, 62, was found dead from a gunshot wound outside his hotel in Charleston, South Carolina – home of Boeing’s 787 manufacturing facility – the day after he gave a deposition against Boeing in his own wrongful termination suit. The case is still being investigated by law enforcement.
Barnett had worked in quality control at Boeing for 32 years and three months ago warned against the company’s 737 being placed back into use after multiple incidents.
Neither Dean nor Barnett’s lawsuits reached a conclusion before their deaths.