Media : Second Informant About Boeing Defects Dies Suddenly

He was taken to hospital due to an ‘unexpected rapidly developing infection’.

The second informant about defects in aircraft from aircraft maker Boeing has died in the US. Joshua Dean, a former employee of supplier Spirit Aerosystems, died after ‘an unexpected, rapidly developing infection’, his family told The Seattle Times newspaper.

Dean was 45 years old. As the newspaper notes, he was leading a healthy lifestyle, but he was taken to the hospital because of breathing problems. After two weeks in critical condition, he died due to staphylococcal pneumonia.

In 2022, he discovered that mechanics were violating the technology for drilling holes in the MAX series aircraft's pressurised spar. Dean reported this to his superiors, but they ignored the situation. During the same inspection, he failed to notice another defect, which was the reason for his dismissal. Later he reported the violations to the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States.

We remind you, in March the former Boeing engineer John Barnett, who accused the aircraft manufacturer of using low-quality parts, was found dead in his truck in the US. According to US law enforcement officials, he shot himself.

Boeing planes have recently been credited with several incidents that have led to suspending the operation of a number of aircraft models around the world.

One such incident occurred in the skies over the US state of Oregon in the evening of January 5. A Boeing 737 aircraft travelling from Portland to California had one of the fuselage elements with a porthole torn out 20 minutes after the flight started. And in February, a Boeing 757 flying from San Francisco to Boston lost part of its right wing plating during the flight. As a result, the crew was forced to make an emergency landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration launched an investigation against Boeing, during which it found numerous manufacturing violations. As a result, the company significantly reduced deliveries of aircraft - in the first quarter, the company made 83 deliveries, which is 36 per cent less than a year earlier.