Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) , which supplies vital pieces to Boeing’s (BA) aircraft, has filed a lawsuit to dodge a safety probe on the same day it was revealed that a second Boeing whistleblower, Joshua Dean, died.
In March, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into Spirit AeroSystems (which has a facility in Texas) months after an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing after a door plug blew off of the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft mid-flight. The investigation instructs Spirit AeroSystems to turnover a plethora of documents that detail manufacturing issues in its products.
Related: Another Boeing whistleblower dies after raising safety concerns
“The potential risks associated with certain airplane models are deeply concerning and potentially life-threatening to Texans,” said Paxton in a statement on March 28. “I will hold any company responsible if they fail to maintain the standards required by the law and will do everything in my power to ensure manufacturers take passenger safety seriously.”
Now, Spirit AeroSystems is pushing back against that request. In a lawsuit that was filed on May 1 against Paxton, the company argues that his request to examine documents “violates” its “Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.”
Spirit AeroSystems also claims that the documents contain “significant business interests” as well as “employment and personnel records” that it wants to keep private.
A Boeing employee stands in shade during the UK heatwave, beneath the fuselage of the company’s 777X jet airliner and a GE engine at the Farnborough Airshow, on July 18 2022, at Farnborough, England.
Richard Baker/Getty Images
The lawsuit coincidentally was filed on the same day it was revealed on May 2 that Dean died from a severe bacterial infection.
His death came roughly a month after Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead in his car from a “self inflicted gunshot wound.” Barnett died a day after he testified in a deposition where he revealed the alleged safety issues he witnessed as an employee at a Boeing production plant.
Dean, who was a quality auditor with Spirit AeroSystems, was at war with Boeing’s supplier since he was fired in 2023. He was part of a class-action lawsuit that accused Spirit AeroSystems of hiding “widespread quality failures” in its aircraft production from its shareholders.
Dean claimed in the lawsuit that Spirit AeroSystems “undercounted or manipulated” documentation of defects in its production to make it seem like there was quality improvement after Boeing put it on “probation” for quality control issues.
More Boeing:
Another Boeing whistleblower dies after raising safety concernsBoeing whistleblower says he received ‘physical threats’ over safety concernsBoeing accused of hiding information of retaliation against workers
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