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The Boeing guy was a very different situation.

It's annoying that people refuse to actually look at details, and just assume shit.

John Barnett had been a whistleblower, seven years before he died. He just wanted safe planes, and he reported safety violations and such multiple times.

He filed complaints with the FAA and the FAA acted on the reports. This cost Boeing a lot of money and they fired Barnett, but to be jackasses they did it in such a way as to make it look like a voluntary retirement. And then Boeing managers went around to every other place that Barnett could work, and told them not to hire him.

That was what the lawsuit was over, and it was going badly. Barnett lost the first round of the wrongful termination lawsuit, and then the second. He was on his final appeal and from all accounts it did not go well in the courtroom the day before his death.

When you fight a losing fight like that, and lose again and again, it wears on you.

So yes, John Barnett took his own life.

At 9:42am on March 9, a hotel staff member heard a gunshot.[32] At 10am, Barnett's attorney called the hotel asking for a wellness check.[32][33] He was found dead shortly afterward in the hotel parking lot in his truck, with a single gunshot wound to the head.[13] He had his legally owned pistol in his hand,[34] with his finger still on the trigger, and left a suicide note in the passenger seat, on which he wrote, "I can't do this any longer" and "I pray Boeing pays."[35][3][12][36] Video surveillance showed Barnett left the hotel on the evening of March 8, but returned a few minutes later and re-parked, remaining inside his vehicle. No activity was observed of Barnett or his vehicle until the following morning, on March 9, when at 7:20am the vehicle lights blinked on and off. His vehicle was found to be locked and the key fob was in Barnett's pocket.[34]