The mother of John Barnett, a former Boeing quality manager-turned-whistleblower who died earlier this month, told CBS News she holds the aircraft man

Family of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett speaks out following his death

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2024-03-29 00:30:04

The mother of John Barnett, a former Boeing quality manager-turned-whistleblower who died earlier this month, told CBS News she holds the aircraft manufacturing giant responsible for the grinding treatment that ultimately left her son despondent.

"If this hadn't gone on so long, I'd still have my son, and my sons would have their brother and we wouldn't be sitting here. So in that respect, I do," Vicky Stokes said when asked if she places some of the blame for her son's death on Boeing.

Barnett had been in Charleston, South Carolina giving testimony in his whistleblower case against the embattled aerospace company, when on March 9 he was found dead in his car in the parking lot of his hotel. He was 62.

Police are still investigating his death, which the coroner has called an apparent suicide, just before he was set to resume providing deposition testimony against Boeing, which he had accused of repeatedly ignoring safety issues .

Stokes and her son Rodney Barnett said they do not want to comment on whether they believe he died by suicide until the investigation by the Charleston police department concludes. They told CBS News in their first television interview that they want to see John Barnett's legacy of fighting for the safety of the flying public preserved.