Boeing's Reckoning: A New Documentary Exposes Ongoing Safety Concerns
Rory Kennedy's sequel documentary, 'Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing', revisits the aviation safety scandal linked to Boeing, highlighting ongoing issues after the 2022 film. It opens with the mysterious death of whistleblower John Barnett, raising questions about corporate accountability and safety concerns surrounding the Boeing 737 Max.
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Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing review – like a horror movie … only this is real life
In 2022, Rory Kennedy exposed the aviation safety scandal in which 346 people died – but since then, a plane door has blown out mid-flight and more whistleblowers have come to the fore. Will anyone pay for this? It is unfortunate that a sequel was required to Rory Kennedy’s 2022 documentary feature, which alleged that the profit-driven culture at a US aeronautics firm led to two plane crashes and the deaths of 346 people. But given the lack of corporate accountability evident at the end of Downfall: The Case Against Boeing – and the apparent complicity of regulatory body the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – it was inevitable. Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing opens with a rundown of a significant development in the story: the mysterious death in March 2024 of John Barnett, a former Boeing employee turned whistleblower. Barnett, a contributor in the first film, was in the middle of a deposition when he was found dead at his hotel, which investigators ruled a suicide. Is this another casualty to add to Boeing’s mounting death toll? And is the alarming aviation safety scandal – supposedly resolved in November 2020, when the FAA lifted its grounding order on the Boeing 737 Max – in fact still ongoing? Continue reading...
‘Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing’ Review: The Cost of Cutting Corners on Netflix
Documentarian Rory Kennedy’s follow-up to her 2022 investigation into the 737 MAX tragedies argues that a profits-over-quality company culture was to blame.