A former employee of Spirit AeroSystems who blew the whistle on the Boeing supplier’s manufacturing and quality control issues has died. Forty-five-year-old Joshua Dean died of a sudden illness after he contracted an MRSA infection and pneumonia. Dean had accused his former employer Spirit AeroSystems of firing him in retaliation for speaking out against the company, including in a shareholder lawsuit last year. Spirit AeroSystems built the door panel that blew out of the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in January.
Joshua Dean’s death comes two months after Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead of a reported self-inflicted gunshot wound shortly after giving evidence in a lawsuit against Boeing.