Barnett was appointed quality control manager at the North Charleston plant in 2010, retired in 2017 for health reasons, and broke the news of Boeing's production safety problems in 2019.
On January 5, a door plug came off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 during flight
On January 5, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 was involved in an accident shortly after takeoff when a door plug came off the side of the cabin. The US Federal Aviation Administration subsequently ordered Boeing to submit improved quality control plans for accidents such as door plugs, and banned Boeing from increasing production of 737 MAX jets.
The incident also prompted a criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department to assess whether Boeing is complying with a deferred prosecution agreement it reached with Boeing in 2021.
The agreement relates to two fatal crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 that killed a total of 346 people on 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Boeing agreed to pay fines and restitution and promised to make adequate corrections in exchange for the Justice Department's stay of prosecution.
The incident occurred during the duration of the deferred prosecution agreement, which means the Justice Department could still move forward with related criminal cases against Boeing.
The Associated Press reported that families of some of the victims of the two crashes are urging the Justice Department to reopen the lawsuit by finding that Boeing continued to violate the terms of the agreement.
According to AFP, the multiple problems exposed by Boeing are seen by aviation safety experts as "serious safety culture deficiencies" that are difficult to quickly reverse.
Industry watchers are closely watching the next leadership change at Boeing. Boeing chief Executive Dave Calhoun has announced he will step down at the end of the year.
A prominent consulting firm recommended last week that investors vote at Boeing's shareholder meeting against keeping Calhoun and the two directors responsible for safety and production audits on the board.TikTok has formally sued the US government, asking a court to rule that the ban violates the US Constitution
Short video giant Tiktok has announced a lawsuit against the US government.
On May 7, TikTok and ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court, asking the court to rule that the Protection of Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Apps Act, which aims to ban TikTok, violates the US Constitution and block enforcement of the law.
"This is the first time in the history of the United States Congress has enacted a law imposing a permanent, nationwide ban on a particular speech platform," TikTok said in its lawsuit.
TikTok said that banning TikTok is a clear violation of the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and that "there is no doubt that this bill will force TikTok to shut down by January 19, 2025."
TikTok also said that the ban was not based on any convincing evidence, but only on speculation and concerns about data security and content manipulation, which, if any, could be addressed through initiatives already in place, such as the Texas Project.
Since March this year, in the name of "protecting national security", the US Congress has rapidly promoted the TikTok ban bill.
On April 24, US President Joe Biden said he had signed a $95 billion foreign aid bill into law. The bill involves forcing ByteDance to spin off the US operations of its app TikTok. Under the terms, ByteDance was given about nine months to divest its U.S. operations or face a national ban.On April 25, ByteDance told Surging news reporters that foreign media's news about ByteDance exploring the sale of TikTok was untrue, and ByteDance did not have any plans to sell TikTok.
TikTok and ByteDance have argued that spinning off their U.S. operations is not commercially, technically or legally feasible. The ban not only deprives the company of equal protection, but also leads to the illegal appropriation of the company's private property.
The lawsuit is not the first time TikTok has sued the US government. In 2020, then-President Trump issued a ban on TikTok, TikTok, employees and creators sued the US government separately and successfully, and the court halted the ban.
The bill has also caused some controversy in the United States. American civil rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have repeatedly issued statements condemning the bill as a violation of the First Amendment and setting a precedent for the US government's excessive control over social media and speech.
In early May, U.S. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah publicly declared in a conversation with Secretary of State Blinken that "we overwhelmingly support banning TikTok" because of the disproportionate share of Palestinian content on TikTok.
