A prominent Boeing whistle-blower, a former quality manager who raised concerns about manufacturing practices at the company’s 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina, was found dead on Saturday with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to local officials.
据当地官员称，波音公司的著名吹哨人——曾对该公司位于南卡罗来纳州的787梦想客机工厂的制造提出担忧的前质量管控经理——于周六被发现死于疑似自残的枪伤。

The whistle-blower, John Barnett, was in Charleston for a deposition for a lawsuit in which he accused Boeing of retaliating against him for making complaints about quality and safety.
吹哨人约翰·巴内特上周在查尔斯顿出席一项诉讼的取证，他在诉讼中指控波音公司对他提出的质量和安全投诉进行报复。

Quality problems involving both design and manufacturing have plagued Boeing for years — most prominently after the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019, and again since a fuselage panel blew out on a Max flight shortly after takeoff two months ago.
多年来，涉及设计和制造的质量问题一直困扰着波音公司，最突出的是在2018年和2019年两架波音737 Max飞机坠毁，以及两个月前一架Max飞机在起飞后不久机身舱门板脱落。

Mr. Barnett filed the complaint against Boeing with the U.S. Labor Department in 2017 under the AIR21 Whistleblower Protection Program, which protects employees of plane manufacturers who report information pertaining to air carrier safety violations. He left the company that year.
巴内特于2017年根据“AIR21吹哨人保护计划”向美国劳工部提出了对波音公司的投诉。该计划保护举报违反航空承运安全信息的飞机制造商员工。他于当年离开了波音公司。

Boeing’s lawyer deposed Mr. Barnett on Thursday and he was questioned by his own lawyers for half the day Friday. They were scheduled to complete the deposition on Saturday morning, said Robert Turkewitz, Mr. Barnett’s lawyer in the case.
周四，波音的律师对巴内特进行了取证，周五他又接受了自己律师半天的询问。巴内特的律师罗伯特·特克维茨说，他们本来计划在周六上午完成取证。

When Mr. Barnett, 62, did not show up on Saturday morning and did not answer phone calls, Mr. Turkewitz said he grew concerned and called Mr. Barnett’s hotel. Mr. Barnett was then found dead in his pickup truck in the hotel parking lot.
62岁的巴内特当天早上没有出现，也没有接听电话，特克维茨说他开始担心，并给巴内特住的酒店打了电话。随后，巴内被发现死在酒店停车场的一辆皮卡车里。

The Charleston County Coroner’s office confirmed the death, which it said appeared to be “a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
查尔斯顿县验尸官办公室证实了这起死亡事件，称其似乎是 “自残枪伤”所致。

The Charleston Police Department noted the coroner’s finding in a statement and said it was conducting an investigation. “Detectives are actively investigating this case and are awaiting the formal cause of death, along with any additional findings that might shed further light on the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Barnett,” the department said.
查尔斯顿警察局在一份声明中指出了法医的调查结果，并表示正在进行调查。“警探们正在积极调查此案，等待正式死因鉴定以及任何可能进一步揭示巴内特死因的其他调查结果，”该部门表示。

Mr. Turkewitz said Mr. Barnett’s experience at Boeing had deeply affected him.
特克维茨律师说，巴内特在波音公司的经历深深地影响了他。

“It was really weighing on him, what was going on, and reliving all these things that had happened and the stress it had caused,” Mr. Turkewitz said.
他说：“这对他来说真的很沉重，发生过的那些事，重温这一切，以及它们造成的压力。”

An administrative law judge with the Labor Department was hearing the whistle-blower case, which was in discovery. A trial had been set for June.
劳工部的一名行政法法官正在审理这起吹哨人案件，该案正在取证中。审判定于6月举行。

Mr. Turkewitz said he planned to proceed with Mr. Barnett’s case, on behalf of Mr. Barnett’s family. “What John wanted was at least for it to make a difference,” he said.
特克维茨说，他计划代表巴内特的家人继续处理他的案件。“约翰想要的是至少带来一些改变，”他说。

In a statement, Boeing said, “We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
波音公司在一份声明中表示：“我们对巴内特先生的去世感到悲痛，我们与他的家人和朋友同在。”

Known as Swampy because of his Louisiana roots, Mr. Barnett worked at Boeing for nearly three decades until he retired in 2017. He had worked at Boeing’s factory in Everett, Wash., before moving to a new factory in North Charleston, S.C., in 2010 to work on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a wide-body jet that was the company’s most important new plane in a generation.
巴内特因祖籍路易斯安那州而有了“沼泽”这个昵称，他在波音公司工作了近三十年，直到2017年退休。他曾在波音位于华盛顿州埃弗雷特的工厂工作，2010年搬到了位于南卡罗来纳州北查尔斯顿的新工厂，从事波音787梦想客机的制造工作，这种宽体喷气式飞机是波音公司一代以来最重要的新机型。

After two of Boeing’s 737 Max planes crashed in 2018 and 2019, Mr. Barnett’s concerns about quality issues at Boeing were featured prominently in The New York Times and other news outlets, as examples of widespread problems with the company’s manufacturing.
在2018年和2019年两架737 Max飞机坠毁后，《纽约时报》和其他新闻媒体在显著位置报道了巴内特对波音公司质量问题的担忧，将其作为该公司的生产普遍存在问题的例证。

Mr. Barnett told The Times in 2019 that he had discovered clusters of titanium slivers that were hanging over flight control wires in some planes. Those slivers were produced when fasteners were fitted into nuts.
巴内特在2019年告诉时报，他发现一些飞机的飞行控制线上悬挂着一堆堆的钛片。这些薄片是在紧固件装入螺母时产生的。

Mr. Barnett said in interviews that he had repeatedly urged his bosses to remove the slivers but that they had refused and moved him to another part of the plant.
巴内特在接受采访时表示，他曾多次敦促上司去除这些屑片，但他们拒绝了，并将他转到了工厂的另一个部门。

The Federal Aviation Administration in 2017 required that Dreamliners be cleared of shavings before they were delivered to airlines. Boeing said at the time that it was complying with that directive and was working with a supplier to improve the design of the nut. But the company said that the issue did not present a flight safety issue.
2017年，美国联邦航空管理局要求梦想客机在交付给航空公司之前完全清除碎屑。波音公司当时表示遵守了该指令，并正在与供应商合作改进螺母设计。但该公司表示，这一问题并不构成飞行安全问题。

Mr. Barnett also told The Times in 2019 that he had reported to management that defective parts had gone missing, raising the possibility that they had been installed in planes.
2019年时，巴内特还告诉时报，自己已向管理层报告过存在缺陷的零件消失不见的情况，提出了这些零件被安装在飞机上的可能性。

He said that his bosses told him to finish the paperwork on the missing parts without figuring out where they had gone.
他说，上司让自己在没有弄清楚丢失零件去向的情况下完成关于相关零件的文书报告。

The F.A.A. investigated and found that Boeing had lost some damaged parts.
美国联邦航空管理局展开了调查，发现波音公司丢失了一些受损部件。

“As a quality manager at Boeing, you’re the last line of defense before a defect makes it out to the flying public,” Mr. Barnett told The Times in 2019. “And I haven’t seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I’d put my name on saying it’s safe and airworthy.”
“作为波音公司的负责质量的经理，你是问题暴露在乘飞行出行公众之前的最后一道防线，”巴内特在2019年对时报表示。“而我还没有看到任何一架从查尔斯顿工厂出厂、能安全且适航到我会签名通过的飞机。”

Mr. Barnett, who lived in Pineville, La., shared his concerns again in interviews with The Times this year as questions about quality issues at Boeing re-emerged after an incident on Jan. 5 in which a panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane in midair during an Alaska Airlines flight.
1月5日，阿拉斯加航空一架波音737 Max 9发生舱门板空中脱落事件，在那之后，有关波音质量问题的问题再次出现。今年在接受时报采访时，居住在路易斯安那州派恩维尔的巴内特再次表达了他的担忧。

“Over the years, it’s just been a steady pecking away at quality” at Boeing, Mr. Barnett said, adding, “This is not a 737 problem. It’s a Boeing problem.”
“多年来，波音的质量一直在一点点下降，”巴内特表示，并补充道，“这不是737的问题。这是波音公司的问题。”

Boeing needs to “get back to basics,” he said. “They need to get back to airplane building 101.”
波音需要“回归基础，”他说，“他们需要重温飞机建造的基本知识。”

Mr. Barnett’s mother, Vicky Stokes, said in an interview on Tuesday that her son’s experience with Boeing had taken a heavy toll, making him look older than his three brothers even though he was the youngest. “He just carried this on his shoulders for so many years,” she said.
巴内特的母亲维琪·斯托克斯周二接受采访时表示，她儿子在波音的经历对他造成了身心损害，尽管他是家里最小的孩子，但他看起来比三个哥哥还要老。“这么多年，他一直背负着这个负担，”她说。

In an interview in January, Mr. Barnett said he no longer flew on planes because of what he’d seen during his time at Boeing.
巴内特在1月份的一次采访中表示，鉴于他在波音公司工作期间的所见所闻，他不再乘坐飞机。

“I’m not going to set foot on an airplane today,” he said. “It’s sad. It breaks my heart. I love Boeing. I love what it used to stand for.”
“我现在不会踏上飞机了，”他说。“这很可悲，让我很伤心。我爱波音。我喜欢它曾经代表的一切。”

Sydney Ember是时报商业记者，报道美国经济和劳工市场新闻。

翻译：纽约时报中文网