Flight Risk: Rory Kennedy’s ‘Freefall: A Reckoning For Boeing’ Argues Aircraft Maker Hasn’t Corrected Alarming Safety Problems – DC/DOX

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rory Kennedy follows a self-imposed rule when she travels by air. “I don’t fly on the 737 Maxes,” she says of Boeing aircraft. “And I don’t fly on the Dreamliners.”

Anyone who has seen her documentary Downfall: The Case Against Boeing will understand why. That 2022 Netflix film investigated the company’s flawed design of the 737 Max and its MCAS flight control software which resulted in two catastrophic crashes that killed almost 350 passengers and crew. Kennedy returns to the theme of Boeing and its imperiled reputation in her latest documentary, Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeingwhich just held its world premiere at the DC/DOX festival in the nation’s capital.

“At the end of that film [Downfall]we were left with reassurances from Boeing saying that they learned their lesson, they changed their ways,” the director said at a Q&A following the Freefall premiere. “And for the initial phases, as they were kind of rebuilding the 737 Max and making some corrections on that plane, it seemed like maybe they were headed in the right direction and I was hopeful… [But] I started seeing a lot of the behaviors that led to the 737 Max crash continue and it was very concerning to me.”

Case in point: a January 2024 incident aboard an Alaska Airlines flight that saw a door plug panel blow off in mid-air, triggering depressurization (fortunately, the aircraft had not reached cruising altitude and although a significant percentage of oxygen masks did not function properly, the plane landed safely and everyone survived). An investigation by the National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB) concluded factory workers who had reinstalled the door plug failed to secure it with four key bolts.

“This accident never should have happened,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said in 2025. “The safety deficiencies that led to this accident should have been evident to Boeing.” For its part, the company issued a mea culpa, writing in a statement, “We at Boeing regret this accident and continue to work on strengthening safety and quality across our operations. We will review the final report and recommendations as we continue to implement improvements.”

Those promises notwithstanding, Freefall doesn’t instill confidence in Boeing operations. Quite the opposite. The film, which is expected to debut on Netflix in August, is based partly on the testimony of whistleblowers who reported numerous instances in which managers allegedly told safety monitors to overlook problems lest production be slowed. Among those who feature prominently in the documentary is John Barnett, a 32-year employee of Boeing who worked in quality control. He died under mysterious circumstances in 2024 while pursuing a lawsuit against Boeing that alleged his supervisors had retaliated against him for reporting safety problems.

“I had the honor and pleasure of meeting John when we made Downfall and I became friends with John and was following his case with his lawyers,” Kennedy said. “When he died, I was just crestfallen and so upset… I didn’t know what happened, but I felt that no matter what happened, that I was going to feel that Boeing was responsible for his death. And I knew how much they had put him through and how tortured he was in the aftermath of him speaking out and telling us and everybody what his concerns were. And that was the reason that I wanted to make this film.”

Other whistleblowers in the film include Sam Mohawk, who worked in Boeing’s Renton, WA factory, and Merle Meyers, a 30-year-employee who worked as a Boeing safety inspector. Meyers alleges parts painted red to mark them as scrap were reincorporated into manufacturing lines – again, so ambitious production targets would be kept. Meyers says employees who voice concerns about manufacturing safety face negative consequences.

“Most of the people [who file complaints] are downgraded in their performance, which is what they did to John [Barnett]and they’re laid off so they’re quietly disposed of and everyone knows you don’t make the waves,” Meyers insisted at the Q&A. “You don’t speak up [about] unethical or bad behaviors, illegal activity, like we saw with removing the rejection tags [on logbooks]where you saw them deleted. You can’t say anything about that, or you will be marginalized and released one way or another.”

The Q&A moderator, Michael Scherer of The Atlantic magazine, asked Meyers whether “anything has changed” at Boeing since Meyers left.

“It’s gotten worse, in fact,” Meyers replied. “The place leaks like a sieve. I get calls constantly from [current employees]‘Hey, Merle, it’s even worse now than when you were here.’ That kind of thing.”

Meyers added, “I’m third generation Boeing and in my family, there’s not going to be a fourth generation because my kids have seen the years of struggling with this type of bad management, unethical leadership. And none of their cousins have applied, either. So, it ends with three generations with my family.”

Michael Stumo, father of 24-year-old Samya Stumo who was killed in the 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 Max aircraft — Ethiopia Airlines flight 302 – appeared in Downfall and is featured in Freefall. At the Q&A he offered his thoughts on what Boeing could do to restore its once lofty reputation.

“They would commit to building the best, innovative, safest planes in the universe and do it,” he stated. “They have the resources, they have the knowledge, they could do that. Everything else is just air. The other thing is those guys that were disciplining John Barnett, and pushing him against the wall and degrading, demoting the people — they still have jobs. When they don’t have their jobs, something changes, but they have their jobs today.”

The Downfall and Freefall documentaries argue that Boeing’s company culture deteriorated as company execs prioritized profits and a rising share price over safety. The Boeing board rewarded CEOs for that apparent strategy, showering James McNerney and his successors — Dennis Muilenburg, Dave Calhoun, and current CEO Kelly Ortberg – with a total of half a billion dollars or so in compensation.

Freefall includes an official statement from Boeing, which says it disputes some of the documentary’s assertions and that it has addressed other safety matters raised by the film. Kennedy says for the most part, her contact with the company has been informal.

“I haven’t had really that much engagement with them. I did run into a top executive very randomly through my cousin… maybe four years ago,” the filmmaker noted. “I talked to [the executive] and she said, ‘Well, it’s interesting because we did a screening of Downfall and 350 of our top executives all watched it together and I was part of that screening.’ And she said, ‘It really stunned us. And none of us could find one fact that was incorrect in the film.’ And she said, ‘We took it very seriously and we reflected on it’ and [she] said all of the things that they keep saying. And then in terms of their actions, you’re just not seeing it.”

Said Merle Meyers regarding Boeing management, “They’re going to fall out of their chairs when we see this one.”