BOEING · WATCH
INDEPENDENT · NON-AFFILIATED
00:00:00 UTC
THE DEAD
PUBLIC RECORD · ALL CLAIMS CITED
01
JOHN BARNETT
09 MAR 2024 · AGE 62
Boeing quality manager, Charleston SC, thirty-two years of service.1 Found dead in his truck on the third day of his deposition in a whistleblower retaliation case against Boeing.2 Coroner ruled the death self-inflicted; subsequent police investigation attributed it to chronic stress from the case.3 In May 2025 Boeing settled the wrongful-death suit brought by his family. Terms were not disclosed.4 "I can't do this any longer." — note recovered from his vehicle.3
02
JOSHUA DEAN
01 MAY 2024 · AGE 45
Spirit AeroSystems quality auditor. Was the first to publicly raise concerns about misdrilled holes in 737 MAX aft pressure bulkheads, in 2022.5 Spirit fired him in April 2023; he filed a Department of Labor retaliation complaint in May.6 Two weeks after going into hospital with breathing problems, he was dead. MRSA infection, pneumonia, stroke.5 He was forty-five and reportedly in good health beforehand.7 "If you make too much trouble, you will get the Josh treatment." — Joshua Dean, NPR interview, Feb 2024.8
CR
ETHIOPIAN 302
10 MAR 2019 · 157 SOULS
737 MAX 8. Loss of control six minutes after takeoff from Bole International, Addis Ababa. MCAS activation traced to a single failed angle-of-attack sensor — the second such crash in five months.9 All 149 passengers and 8 crew killed.
CR
LION AIR 610
29 OCT 2018 · 189 SOULS
737 MAX 8. Loss of control thirteen minutes after takeoff from Soekarno–Hatta, Jakarta. MCAS activation traced to a single failed angle-of-attack sensor.10 All 181 passengers and 8 crew killed. Same root cause as Ethiopian 302 four months later.
THE SCALE OF LOSS
CONFIRMED DEATHS · CONFIRMED ACCOUNTABILITY
346
▎ TOTAL MCAS CRASH FATALITIES · LION AIR 610 + ETHIOPIAN 302 910
189
▎ LION AIR FLIGHT 610 · 29 OCT 2018 10
157
▎ ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES 302 · 10 MAR 2019 9
2
▎ BOEING-LINKED WHISTLEBLOWER DEATHS · 2024 25
0
⌀ BOEING OR SPIRIT EXECUTIVES INDICTED 12
087173260346
Three hundred and forty-six people were killed in two crashes that the FAA, the NTSB, and Boeing's own internal review13 all traced to a single design decision. Two whistleblowers who tried to draw attention to Boeing manufacturing problems have since died. No Boeing or Spirit executive has been criminally indicted for any of it. Boeing entered a deferred-prosecution agreement in January 2021; a 2024 attempt at a fraud plea was rejected by a federal judge in December 2024.12
THE PRESENT TENSE
LIVE · AIRPLANES.LIVE · POLLED EVERY 30 SECONDS
▎ 737 MAX AIRCRAFT IN THE SKY
000
SOURCE: ADSB.LOL 15 · TYPE-CODE FILTER B38M+B39M · APPROX. 1,432 MAX OPERATING GLOBALLY
≈ one in every twenty commercial aircraft aloft worldwide.16 If lined up wingtip to wingtip on a runway, the formation would stretch over ten miles.
▎ ESTIMATED SOULS AIRBORNE IN A 737 MAX
0
BASIS: COUNT × 170 (TYPICAL MAX 8/9 SEATING) · FAA LOAD FACTORS IN PRODUCTION
About the population of San Luis Obispo, California. Or every seat in The Rose Bowl, with twelve thousand standing.
THE FEED
REAL CALLSIGNS · UPDATED JUST NOW
CALLSIGN
REGISTRATION
OPERATOR
TYPE
ALT FT
SPD KT
POSITION LAT,LON · HEADING
THE MAP
GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION · LIVE FROM SNAPSHOT
000 AIRCRAFT POSITIONS · TYPE B38M + B39M EQUIRECTANGULAR PROJECTION · LAND OUTLINE: NATURAL EARTH 110M
N. AMERICA S. AMERICA EUROPE AFRICA ASIA OCEANIA
Every amber point is a single 737 MAX aircraft transmitting an ADS-B position right now. The clusters are the world's busiest airspace — the US east of the Rockies, the European mainland, the Gulf, the Pacific Rim. Each dot averages about one hundred and seventy souls aboard.
THE WALL
EVERY SERVICE DIFFICULTY REPORT · 858 DAYS
SINCE 5 JAN 2024 TOTAL 0 737 MAX 0 SEVERE 0 SEVERE NOTED QUIET
5 JAN 2024 · DOOR PLUG 12 MAY 2026 · TODAY
Each cell is a single Service Difficulty Report filed with the FAA 17 — a mechanic, an inspector, or a pilot writing down a problem with a Boeing aircraft. On average, one is filed every ninety-seven minutes, day and night, since the door plug blew out.
THE PRICE
SNAPSHOT · PRODUCTION WILL POLL EVERY 60s
▎ MARKET
BA · THE BOEING COMPANY · NYSE
$0.00
+0.00%
VOL · MKT CAP · DAY RANGE
BA closed at $249.00 the day before Alaska 1282 lost its door plug.18 The stock has held nearly all of that value, despite two whistleblower deaths, a rejected federal plea deal, a settled wrongful-death lawsuit, and 346 outstanding crash fatalities. No one has bought back a life with a quarterly dividend.
SOURCES
EVERY CLAIM ON THIS PAGE · LINKED · VERIFIABLE

This dashboard publishes only public-record data and reporting from named, reputable outlets. Every numbered citation in the page above links to the corresponding entry here. Corrections: corrections@boeingwatch.org.

  1. John Barnett biography. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barnett_(whistleblower)
  2. "Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who raised alarm over plane quality, is found dead." Bill Chappell, NPR, 12 March 2024. npr.org/2024/03/12/1238033573
  3. Charleston Police Department investigative findings re: J. Barnett, May 2024. Summarised in: Wikipedia (John Barnett), citing CPD report. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barnett_(whistleblower)#Death
  4. "Family of Boeing whistleblower settles lawsuit with aircraft maker over his death." NBC News / AP, 13 May 2025. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...rcna206653
  5. "Whistleblower Josh Dean of Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems has died." Dominic Gates, Seattle Times, 1 May 2024. seattletimes.com/business/whistleblower-josh-dean-...
  6. "Whistleblower Joshua Dean, who raised concerns about Boeing jets, dies at 45." Joel Rose, NPR, 2 May 2024. npr.org/2024/05/02/1248693512
  7. "Whistleblower at key Boeing supplier dies after sudden illness." Kris Van Cleave, CBS News, 1 May 2024. cbsnews.com/news/joshua-dean-boeing-whistleblower-...
  8. "Spirit AeroSystems Whistleblower Dies After Sudden Infection." TIME, 2 May 2024. time.com/6973635
  9. Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority. Final Investigation Report, Accident to Ethiopian Airlines B-737-8 (MAX) Reg ET-AVJ, 10 March 2019. Investigation report AI-01/19. Summary: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_302
  10. KNKT (Indonesia National Transportation Safety Committee). Aircraft Accident Investigation Report, PT. Lion Mentari Airlines, B-737-8 (MAX); PK-LQP, 29 October 2018. KNKT.18.10.35.04. Summary: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Air_Flight_610
  11. NTSB Preliminary Report: Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, 5 January 2024. Report DCA24MA063. ntsb.gov/investigations/...DCA24MA063
  12. "US judge rejects Boeing plea deal over 737 MAX fatal crashes." Reuters, 5 December 2024. reuters.com/legal/...2024-12-05
  13. FAA Expert Panel Report — Boeing 737 MAX Flight Control System, mandated by US Congress, February 2024. faa.gov/.../Section_103_ODA_Panel_Report.pdf
  14. Placeholder reference for "last severe SDR." Production build will pull live from av-info.faa.gov/sdrx/ via nightly cron.
  15. airplanes.live public flight-tracking API. CORS-enabled. Live in-browser fetches. airplanes.live
  16. FlightAware / IATA estimate: ~10,000–13,000 commercial aircraft aloft globally at any given moment. flightaware.com
  17. FAA Service Difficulty Reporting System (SDRS). Public database. av-info.faa.gov/sdrx/
  18. Historical BA share price, Yahoo Finance. Close 4 January 2024 = $249.00. finance.yahoo.com/quote/BA/history