New Delhi, June 13 -- An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff in Ahmedabad on Thursday, killing 241 of 242 people on board. The aircraft was flying to London Gatwick from Ahmedabad. The crash is the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 787 since it entered service in 2009, and one of the worst tragedies in India's aviation history.

The crash has turned the spotlight back on John Barnett, a former Boeing quality control manager who, police say, died by suicide after lawyers questioned him about his whistleblowing on alleged jumbo jet defects.

Born on February 23, 1962, in California, Barnett was a graduate of Bolton High School, and had moved to Louisiana with his mother and three older brothers after his pa...