Freefall Doc: Boeing Safety Crisis Persists
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- "Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing" is Rory Kennedy's sequel to her 2022 documentary "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing," revisiting the allegation that a profit-driven culture caused two crashes that together killed 346 people.
- John Barnett, a former Boeing quality manager who appeared as a whistleblower in the first film, was found dead at his hotel in March 2024 in the middle of a deposition; investigators ruled the death a suicide.
- Senator Josh Hawley challenged then-Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun on his $32.8 million 2023 salary — up 45% from 2022 — at a Senate hearing, asking: "What is it you get paid to do exactly?"
- The film reconstructs the January 2024 Alaska Airlines door plug blowout, in which the plug was missing all four crucial bolts — a hazard Barnett had previously flagged and for which he had been disciplined.
- Boeing responded to the filmmakers that some claims "remain unfounded" and that others are issues the company "thoroughly addressed or continues to improve upon."
- The two referenced crashes — Lion Air Flight 610 (October 2018, 189 killed) and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (March 2019, 157 killed) — preceded the FAA's lifting of the 737 Max grounding order in November 2020.
Why it matters: The documentary argues that Boeing's leadership has not faced criminal prosecution despite mounting evidence including Barnett's death and the 2024 door plug blowout, with Calhoun's $32.8 million salary and Boeing's claim that some allegations are "unfounded" underscoring the accountability gap. The film positions criminal charges — not retirement packages — as the threshold for real change.
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