Boeing Whistleblower's Tragic Death Sparks Accountability in New Netflix Documentary
The documentary 'Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing' on Netflix explores the story of whistleblower John Barnett, who died by suicide in 2024 after providing deposition materials in his case against Boeing. The film is a follow-up to Oscar-nominee Rory Kennedy's 2022 documentary 'DOWNFALL: The Case Against Boeing,' which investigated two crashes of brand-new Boeing aircraft that occurred within five months of each other in 2018.
'Freefall' focuses on the whistleblowers who witnessed a decline in Boeing's safety and quality standards. Interviews with John Barnett, as well as several other quality experts who worked for the company, reveal incidents that displayed a lack of safety and quality control at Boeing. These employees faced pushback or threats of retaliation when reporting their concerns to management.
The documentary also features interviews with family members of the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes, including Naoise Ryan, the widow of Mick Ryan. They worked together to try to bring Boeing to justice for its safety issues. 'Freefall' provides a timeline of Boeing's apparent brushing off of issues leading to catastrophic results and the efforts of whistleblowers trying to do the right thing.