I, for one, will make sure I never step foot in a Boeing commercial airplane, and I will tell the tale about how Boeing kills whistle blowers to my kid’s kid’s kids
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.
His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he was airlifted from Wichita to a hospital in Oklahoma City, Parsons said. There he was put on an ECMO machine, which circulates and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, taking over heart and lung function when a patient’s organs don’t work on their own.
His mother posted a message Friday on Facebook relating all those details and saying that Dean was “fighting for his life.”
I had MRSA once, it's so easy to spread and there is zero doubt in my mind that it could be weaponized. Criminal investigations are necessary after TWO whistleblowers are offed. I'm not holding my breath though. Boeing is too entrenched in the MIP to be investigated in any real sense of the word.
Being whistleblower and being involved in such legal proceedings sucks and I can imagine that one might give up (like Barnett in March) or that it takes a huge toll on your body (like Dean now). But then again ... two such incidents around the same company ... reminds me a bit too much of russian windows.
So, Tesla successfully lobbies the government to get the grant money to apply to NACS instead of CCS, making it the new defacto standard. Now, they're seemingly pulling out? Seems like Tesla just didn't want to have to update their chargers to work with CCS (something that would have been required for that government money, before the lobbying). I love government grants to billion dollar corporations /s
On top of that, the lobbying successfully stunted CCS development, even after 700 kW CCS charging had been demonstrated, with future increases planned. Tesla basically killed all of their charging competition with this move.
I'm sure the auto industry is happy to hear this headline after they started to change their vehicles over to NACS and made promises to customers about access to the Tesla network. Rivian, for example, has already begun shipping complimentary NACS adapters for R1 owners, but this will probably throw a wrench into that.
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