Engineer at Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin nearly suffocated to death under a ROCKET ENGINE as burnt out staff were forced to work 24-hour shifts in pursuit of lucrative Government contracts, lawsuit claims

An engineer at the Jeff Bezos-owned spaceflight company Blue Origin nearly suffocated to death while working under an experimental rocket engine due to lax safety rules, according to a new lawsuit obtained by DailyMail.com.

The explosive suit also outlined a toxic company culture, in which management forced employees to fare for themselves and ignore safety rules, including multiple 24-hour shifts.

The events are said to have occurred between 2020 and 2022, when Blue Origin was racing to fulfill US government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Plaintiff Craig Stoker brought the lawsuit, which also alleged wrongful termination that stemmed from his complaints about safety issues. 

Stoker managed the Blue Origin BE-4 rocket engine project for two years ending in October 2022, when he was fired without cause.

The BE-4 has been plagued by delays for years.

According to the lawsuit, Stoker and others were ordered to withhold information about production and delivery delays from United Launch Alliance, whose Vulcan launch vehicle the BE-4 is supposed to fly on.

Stoker's lawsuit alleged that Blue Origin retaliated against him for blowing the whistle on safety issues and the company culture that created them.

He alleged in the lawsuit that then-CEO Robert Smith pushed the team 'to frequently violate safety procedures and processes in order to meet unreasonable deadlines.'

'Then when issues inevitably arose (including those related to safety), Smith would explode,' according to the plaintiff Craig Stoker.

One of the $7 million BE-4s exploded in a fireball during a routine test in June of this year, adding to the 'frustrating delays' in the engine's development.

'There seems to be a cultural problem there,' Stoker's attorney Will Reed told DailyMail.com. 

The allegations paint a picture of a company that prized deadlines over employee safety, and Stoker was canned for trying to speak up to protect his fellow employees - violating California laws protecting whistleblowers who raise concerns.

Blue Origin did not respond to a request for comment. 

Not only were Stoker's complaints swept under the rug, the lawsuit alleged, but women in leadership also dismissed his concerns and expected him to grin and bear it by his because he was a man, the suit claims.

It was filed by the law firm of Shegerian and Associates in the Superior Court of California for Los Angeles County's central district on November 27.

In one of the more shocking allegations, Stoker said that one of his fellow Blue Origin employees almost asphyxiated while working beneath an engine nozzle during a nitrogen purge in the summer of 2022.

This process uses nitrogen to clear any residual fuel, oxygen, or moisture from a rocket engine's fuel lines. Nitrogen gas is nonflammable, but it can suffocate people if enough of it fills an enclosed space.

'Despite the fact that industry practice required barriers and notification systems in the areas subject to nitrogen purges to make employees aware of the imminent danger, neither of those systems were in place at the time,' the lawsuit alleged. 

This incident happened not long after Stoker had raised his first concerns with company leadership. 

According to the lawsuit, Stoker made his initial complaint about safety concerns in a meeting with Linda Covy, vice president of the engines business unit, and Mary Plunkett, senior vice president of human resources, in May 2022.

Later that month, Stoker emailed Cova and Plunkett 'to reiterate and report other serious concerns related to the behavior of CEO Smith and the ever present hostile work environment that was hampering Blue Origin’s ability to operate safely, efficiently, or competently,' according to the lawsuit.

In the email, Stoker complained that rather than moving more quickly due to Smith's urgings, he and his leadership team wasted time and energy cleaning up after the CEO. 

'We spend significant time smoothing things over, building back morale, repairing damage, stopping people from overreacting to direction to violate policies and procedures and guiding them in making the right decisions,' the lawsuit reads.

In early 2023, he also reported that on at least two occasions, teams were required to work 24-hour shifts.

The resulting exhaustion and burnout led to mistakes that required additional time and energy to correct, he alleged. 

Melissa Beatty, senior director of human resources at Blue Origin, was assigned to lead the investigation into stoker's complaints, according to the lawsuit, and she met with Stoker in May and June of 2022 to go over his complaints. Since they involved the CEO, they were handed over to outside counsel, Stoker was reportedly told.

In the time after he made his complaints, the company retaliated against him, Stoker alleged.

They 'actively sought to embarrass Stoker in front of his peers' by denying him a permanent work station in the company's Los Angeles office, he claimed. 

Stoker kept complaining about safety problems and the dismissive culture around them, until in October 2022 he was told that he was being terminated 'without cause,' according to the lawsuit.

Regardless of the company's stated reasoning, Stoker's termination had the appearance of retaliation, Reed told DailyMail.com. 

He received good performance reviews, but after he started complaining about the company, he was fired without cause.

When he got canned, Stoker was informed he had done nothing wrong, nor was he being accused of any misconduct. He later received a severance offer that he characterized in the lawsuit as 'crappy.'

'You shouldn't throw away good employees - who try to protect other employees - like trash,' said Reed. 

This lawsuit isn't the first the world heard of management and leadership issues at Blue Origin.

In October 2021, reports surfaced that the company suffered from a toxic, dysfunctional 'bro culture.' 

But whereas at that time female employees alleged a toxic environment for women, Stoker's suit said it was toxic for men, too. 

In September of this year, Smith stepped down as CEO.

Stoker demanded that Blue Origin pay damages for the total of 12 separate claims the lawsuit contains, and he demanded a trial by jury.

Reed did not disclose how much his client was seeking in the lawsuit.

This article will be updated if Blue Origin responds to our request for comment. 

Read the full lawsuit here.