A Boeing whistleblower who raised concerns over safety issues with the 737 Max has died suddenly, it has been confirmed.
Joshua Dean, a 45-year-old former quality auditor for supplier SpiritAerosystems, said he was sacked for questioning production standards at a plant in Kansas, where the company is based.
Spirit supplied the door panel for the Alaska Airlines plane that blew out in January, sparking one of the biggest crises at Boeing in years.
Dean’s family have confirmed he died on Tuesday after a fast spreading infection.
Dean is the second Boeing whistleblower to be found dead this year. John Barnett was found in a car park after an apparent suicide in March. He had been giving evidence in a lawsuit against the US planemaker at the time of his death.
Brian Knowles, Dean’s lawyer, told Al Jazeera: “[Dean] possessed tremendous courage to stand up for what he felt was true and right and raised quality and safety issues.
“Aviation companies should encourage and incentivise those that do raise these concerns. Otherwise, safety and quality are truly not these companies’ top priorities.”
Earlier this year, Dean told NPR in an interview that Boeing was “sending out a message to anybody else. If you are too loud, we will silence you.”
Dean claimed to have found a serious manufacturing issue with the Max in October 2022, but said nothing was done by management after he flagged the issues.
Spiritaerosystems and Boeing were approached for comment.