Boeing Whistleblower's Death Sparks Investigation in New Netflix Documentary
A new Netflix documentary series titled 'Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing' explores the story of John Barnett, a whistleblower who died by suicide in 2024 after providing deposition materials in his case against the airline company. As revealed in the documentary, Barnett's death sparked a flurry of conspiracy and rumors, but the focus is on tracing back his career as a quality manager at Boeing.
Barnett's whistleblowing efforts highlighted incidents that displayed a lack of safety and quality control at the company. He faced pushback or threats of retaliation when reporting these issues to management. The documentary also features interviews with other quality experts who worked for Boeing, including Santiago Paredes, who earned the nickname 'showstopper' for slowing down production due to concerns about safety.
'Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing' is a follow-up to Rory Kennedy's 2022 investigative documentary 'DOWNFALL: The Case Against Boeing,' which examined the two crashes of brand-new Boeing aircraft in 2018. The new series focuses on the whistleblowers who witnessed a decline in Boeing's safety and quality standards, including Barnett.