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Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

bbc.com

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Re: Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

#201

Post by manquer »

tivert wrote: post #173
keernan wrote: post #10

He was scheduled to appear for day two of his deposition testimony the morning of his death. Had he died Sat night instead of Sat morning, the transcript of Saturday's testimony could have been read to the jury during trial. Obviously that can't happen now and whatever he was going to say in Saturday's testimony is lost forever.

> the transcript of Saturday's testimony could have been read to the jury during trial. Obviously that can't happen now I'm not so sure: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/right_to_confront_witness : > In Barber v. Page, 390 U.S. 719 (1968), the Court recognized a common law exception to the Confrontation Clause's requirement when a witness was unavailable and, during previous judicial proceedings, had testified against…

It does not apply to dying declarations and statements made under impending death, this is well established in law. [1] Otherwise mob bosses would just pop off every witness and go fully free if it is completely inadmissible . There are limits not everything is admissible however not everything can be thrown away either

[1] https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt6-5-1/ALD...

Re: Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

#202

Post by petre »

dathinab wrote: post #182
dehrmann wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced. Boeing doesn't want more attention, depositions are stressful, and whistleblowers are predisposed to martyrdom. If you're Boeing, this doesn't make the problem go away, it makes it worse .

if you are Boeing the company that would be stupid sure but what about some specific arbitrary high level figure from Boeing? One which if the person says certain things might lose their job because of this or which is afraid to lose more then their job (e.g. due to them knowingly acting in gross negligence for personal gains).

Which one is worse, lose your job or end up in prison?

Re: Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

#203

Post by aurareturn »

autoexec wrote: post #82

I'm not saying that Boeing had him assassinated, but I sure wouldn't put it past them. They've already shown themselves to be perfectly willing to sacrifice human lives for increased profits.

It doesn't even have to be Boeing. It's possible that a government agency could do it as well. For example, suppose Boeing is seen by the government as a national entity, it's possible for a government agency such as CIA to do the assignation if they think he puts the country in an unfavorable position.

But I think it's more likely that a shareholder/high stakes person connected to Boeing might want to do it.

There is no way Boeing, the company, would do it in my opinion. That would be nuts.

Re: Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

#204

Post by falsandtru »

dang wrote: post #197
falsandtru wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nothing was deleted. We never delete a comment, except when the author asks us to. I have confirmed that the text of the comment has been replaced by [flagged] and is no longer readable. It's just sophistry to say that the text was only deleted and the comment was not deleted.

I'm sure plenty of users will be happy to confirm to you that they can still read your comment and that it is therefore not deleted. I wonder if you're using a third-party app to read HN, because if you're using a web browser, you should not be seeing just [flagged]. I unkilled your comment when I posted my last reply.

When I logged out, last time it was replaced by flagged on Chrome and I couldn't read the text, but now I can, even though it's still flagged. Now there is a strange thing. Why are the other flagged comments still replaced with flagged? Your moderation is too variable.

> I unkilled your comment when I posted my last reply.

This?

Re: Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

#205

Post by aurareturn »

ListeningPie wrote: post #98

The emotional strain of being a whistleblower and having your colleagues now see you as the enemy is not something I’ve read about, but it must take a toll. A whistleblower, almost by definition, is a hero to strangers and a villain to those they know and work with. Or he was simply executed like in many corporate espionage movies.

I can't imagine that he would go through all this, and then decide it's not worth it anymore at the very end of his testimony.

Re: Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

#206

Post by bruce511 »

jj999 wrote: post #200
bruce511 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the one hand, violence is always a threat to speaking freely. This is not new. At the very least getting fired is what most people can expect if they speak freely about legitimately confidential things at work. Even things like disparaging co-workers, in a public setting, or harassing people at work by saying inappropriate things can get you fired. You are free to speak freely, but there are consequences, Free Spe…

No one care about your constitution outside your borders while the concept of Free Speech is universal and isn't defined by a geographicaly limited piece of paper. I'll never let your regressive law colonize my thoughts.

Can you please elaborate on what you consider the Universal definition of Free Speech to be?

Are you suggesting that people have the right to say anything they like, in any forum, without consequence?

Re: Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

#207

Post by d--b »

SilasX wrote: post #169
d--b wrote: post #165

What a strange article. - whistleblower dies Blablabla - self inflicted wound Blablabla - he was bound to testify the next day Blablabla - he was found dead in his truck in a parking lot It sounds like the journalist thinks it was murder but can’t write it cause it’s illegal somehow. The result is a piece that almost reads like a satyrical piece from the Onion.

And, like clockwork, it's at the top of the /r/nottheonion sub: https://old.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/1bcfceq/boeing...

Ha, I didn't know that subreddit. Thanks

Re: Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

#208

Post by rightbyte »

eastbound wrote: post #198
qwertyuiop_ wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't be as direct as if the order came from the boardroom. There are thousands of "stakeholders" bound to lose their gravy train, lobbyists, suppliers, "consultants", military industrial complex. It's easy to for one of these to send a "contractor" to stalk, hold the person's arm and "shoot himself" dead. I am not an investigator but this is very very suspicious. He delivered 2 days of testimony and is about t…

So what you’re saying is Boeing has an army of 2000 lobbyists are all ready to kill for financial gain?

There are a lot of shady people involved in the military industry.

Re: Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

#209

Post by hef19898 »

salawat wrote: post #184
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And he not only watched the company fail spectacularly, in several of those cases those failures were connected to deaths, which I imagine he could feel personally responsible for not preventing, even if the corporate machine is really where the responsibility lies.

Table stakes for QA. It would have been worse because he reported and escalated these things just to end up having his department butchered further. I still don't see a snap happening until after the testimony was over.

Those depositions are extremely stressfull. Add in years if not decades of emotional stress, prior. So yes, that can cause depression and can lead to suicide.

Another case where this happened was Therabis Edit: Theranos, obviously (my Pixel 7 keyboard and I won't become close friends any time soon): one of their lead scientists, who very much opposed cheating and their approach, developed a depression because of that and him being completely sidelined. He committed suicide the day before his scheduled depossition in a patent case.

Both cases are tragic, as is every suicide. Just because his death is convenient, doesn't mean in it was foul play...

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