An Boeing aircraft worker who went public with safety concerns and alleged retaliation by his company has died after a brief illness, weeks after another Boeing whistleblower died, attorneys for both men said Thursday.

Joshua Dean, 45, of Wichita, Kansas, died on Tuesday after receiving various diagnoses, including the flu, pneumonia, and MRSA, causing his family to want an autopsy, according to attorney Robert Turkewitz.

“He was a healthy individual who ate well and exercised,” Turkewitz explained to NBC News. “So it just seems odd that he went so fast.”

Dean had been sick for two weeks and was having difficulty breathing, necessitating the use of a ventilator.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Josh and his family,” said Brian Knowles, another attorney who represents Dean. “Josh’s death is a loss for the aviation community and the flying public.

He had remarkable fortitude to stand up for what he believed to be true and right, as well as to highlight quality and safety concerns.”

Turkewitz and Knowles also represented John Barnett, a 62-year-old Louisiana man who died on March 9 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Charleston, South Carolina, according to officials.

Barnett was in town for a deposition in his federal lawsuit against Boeing, which is scheduled to go before an administrative law judge later this year, according to his counsel.

Worked for Boeing for 30 Years

Barnett, who worked at Boeing for more than three decades, informed aviation authorities in 2017 about what he described as potentially “catastrophic” safety flaws with the 787 Dreamliner.

Dean, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, claimed that supervisors failed to address manufacturing faults on the 737 MAX jets.

Although he was not a plaintiff, he is cited in a shareholder case against Spirit filed in 2023.

Dean reported the “mis-drilled holes” in the rear bulkhead of the MAX planes, submitting “formal written findings to his manager,” but Spirit “concealed the defect,” according to the lawsuit. These holes could cause cracks and jeopardize an aircraft’s structural integrity.

“I’m not saying they don’t want you to go out there and examine jobs. “Yes, they do,” he told NPR this year. “However, if you cause too much problems, you will receive the Josh treatment. “You’ll understand what happened to me.”

If you are too loud, we will silence you

Dean was fired from the corporation on April 26, 2023, in what he described as an act of revenge.

“I think they were sending out a message to anybody else,” Dean went on to say. “If you are too loud, we will silence you.”

Spirit replied in a statement that it mourns Dean’s death but declined to comment on his allegations. The supplier has stated to NPR that it strongly disagrees with the allegations in the litigation and is contesting the lawsuit in court.

“Our thoughts are with Josh Dean’s family,” Spirit spokesperson Joe Buccino stated in a statement. “This sudden loss is stunning news here at Spirit and for his loved ones.”

The stress of the past few years may have taken its toll on Dean, according to Turkewitz.

“We were told that stress can cause the immune system to weaken and makes you more susceptible to pneumonia, the flu and MRSA,” he went on to say. “He’d been under a lot of pressure for blowing the whistle, and he assumed he was fired as a result of it. He had been attempting to spread the word, but no one would listen.

Source: NPR, NBC

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Gangs in Haiti besieged multiple districts in Port-au-Prince, burning homes and exchanging Gunfire with police for hours as hundreds escaped the mayhem early Thursday, in one of the most serious attacks since Haiti’s new prime minister was appointed.

The attacks began late Wednesday in communities such as Solino and Delmas 18, 20, and 24, southwest of the main international airport, which has been shuttered for over two months due to ongoing gang violence.

“The gangs started burning everything in sight,” said a man named Néne, who refused to disclose his last name due to fear. “I was hiding in a corner all night.”

Gangs In Haiti Launch Fresh Attacks, Days After A New Prime Minister Is Announced

He walked with a companion, carrying a dusty red bag crammed with clothes—the only thing they could preserve. The garments belonged to Néne’s children, whom he had whisked out of Delmas 18 in the morning during a lull in the battle.

The neighborhoods formerly bustling with cars and pedestrians were like ghost towns long after morning, with only the occasional bleating from a lone goat breaking the calm.

An armored police truck patrolled the streets, passing burnt vehicles and cinderblock walls with the scrawled “Viv Babecue,” a reference to one of Haiti’s most powerful gang bosses.

People who escaped the onslaught in Delmas 18 and other adjacent communities held fans, stoves, mattresses, and plastic bags packed with clothes as they left on foot, on motorcycles, or in colorful mini buses known as tap-taps. Others were walking empty-handed after losing everything.

“There were gunshots left and right,” claimed Paul Pierre, 47, who was walking with his girlfriend looking for safety after their house burned down. They couldn’t salvage any of their possessions.

He stated that the nocturnal battle ripped children from their parents and husbands from their wives as people fled in terror, adding, “Everyone is just trying to save themselves.”

Martina, a woman who refused to provide her last name out of fear, claimed she was left homeless after armed assailants burnt her home. She fled with her 4-year-old, who she claims attempted to flee when the shooting started late Wednesday.

“I told him, ‘Don’t be afraid. “This is life in Haiti,” she remarked as she held a hefty load of goods on her head, including butter, which she wanted to sell to generate money and find a new home.

Gangs In Haiti Launch Fresh Attacks, Days After A New Prime Minister Is Announced

When asked to describe what transpired overnight, she answered, “Gunfire, Gunfire, everywhere! Nobody slept. “Everybody was running.”

Jimmy Chérizier, the head of the formidable gang federation G9 Family and Allies and a former elite police officer known as Barbecue, was in charge of the area where the incident occurred.

He and other gang bosses have been blamed for the coordinated attacks that began on February 29 in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Gunmen have torched police stations, opened fire on the main international airport, and stormed Haiti’s two largest prisons, freeing over 4,000 inmates.

The attacks eventually forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign, prompting the formation of a transitional presidential council. The council’s majority unexpectedly announced a new prime minister on Tuesday: Fritz Bélizaire, a former sports minister. The action threatens to split the nine-member council, which was sworn in last week.

As new authorities take over the country amid fighting, Haitians demand that they prioritize their protection, as gangs remain more strong and well-armed than the Haitian National Police.

More than 2,500 people were murdered or injured between January and March of this year, a more than 50% rise over the same period last year, according to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, over 90,000 individuals have fled Port-au-Prince in just one month, as gangs controlling an estimated 80% of the capital increasingly target formerly tranquil districts.

Ernest Aubrey told how he relocated to Delmas 18 years ago. He’s leaving home for the first time.

Gangs In Haiti Launch Fresh Attacks, Days After A New Prime Minister Is Announced

“It is too much. “We can’t resist any longer,” he said of the gangs. “They are taking everything we own.”

As he went with his heavy backpack, he noticed an acquaintance leaving in a car and dashed toward them to see if he could catch a ride.

Vanessa Vieux was one of the few who stayed at Delmas 18. Early Wednesday after the incident, she relocated her elderly mother to the countryside. She thought it was best not to give her home over to gangs. Furthermore, she has faith in Haiti’s National Police.

“I live next to a police officer,” she explained. “That’s why I’m not scared.”

SOURCE – (AP)

United Nations  — A week after vetoing a U.S.-Japan resolution to halt an arms race in space, Russia circulated a UN resolution urging all countries to take immediate steps to prevent weapons from being placed in outer space “forever.”

The Russian draft resolution, goes beyond the U.S.-Japan plan by calling not only for steps to prevent weapons from being deployed in outer space but also for preventing “the threat or use of force in outer space,” “for all time.”

Russia Proposes UN Resolution On Banning Weapons In Space, After Vetoing Similar UN-Japan Draft

It states that this should include deploying weapons “from space against Earth, and from Earth against objects in outer space.”

When Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected the United States-Japan draft, he warned the Security Council that it did not go far enough in outlawing all sorts of weapons in space.

The vetoed resolution only addressed weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, and made no mention of other weapons in space.

It would have urged all countries to refrain from developing or deploying nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as prohibited by a 1967 international convention adopted by the United States and Russia, and to recognize the importance of verifying compliance.

Before the US-Japan resolution was voted on April 24, Russia and China presented an amendment calling on all countries, particularly those with space capabilities, “to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.”

Seven countries voted in favor, seven against, and one abstention, and the amendment failed to receive the requisite nine “yes” votes in the 15-member Security Council.

Following the decision, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield informed the council that Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that Moscow has no intention of placing nuclear weapons in space.

“Today’s veto raises the question: why? Why, if you are obeying the rules, would you oppose a resolution that reinforces them? “What could you possibly be hiding?” she inquired. “It’s confusing. And it is a disgrace.”

Russia Proposes UN Resolution On Banning Weapons In Space, After Vetoing Similar UN-Japan Draft

Putin was responding to the White House’s revelation in February that Russia had acquired a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, but such a weapon is not yet operational.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s UN Ambassador, said after casting the veto that the US-Japan resolution cherry-picked weapons of mass devastation.

He emphasized that the US and its partners had already revealed plans to deploy weapons in outer space, which explains their activities.

Nebenzia also claimed that the United States has been opposing a Russian-Chinese proposal for a convention prohibiting the deployment of weapons in outer space since 2008.

Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, recklessly invoking “dangerous nuclear rhetoric,” abandoning several arms control obligations, and refusing to engage “in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction.”

Russia Proposes UN Resolution On Banning Weapons In Space, After Vetoing Similar UN-Japan Draft

Much of the Russian draft resolution is identical to the US-Japan text, including the wording aimed at averting an arms race in space.

It urges all countries, particularly those with significant space capabilities, “to actively contribute to the goal of the peaceful use of outer space and the prevention of an arms race in outer space.”

According to Thomas-Greenfield, the world is only beginning to realize “the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space.”

SOURCE – (AP)