Filmmaker Rory Kennedy revisits Boeing in a new documentary, 'Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing', streaming on Netflix from August, spurred by the death of whistleblower John Barnett. Barnett, a former quality inspector, was found dead in his truck in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2024 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His journal contained a plea for Boeing to pay for destroying his life.
Kennedy's Personal Connection to Barnett
Kennedy, 58, had befriended Barnett after featuring him in her 2022 film 'Downfall: The Case Against Boeing', which examined the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Speaking by phone, Kennedy recalled: 'I was horrified and heartbroken. I spoke to his mom pretty immediately after we had heard that news. She said to me, we need to make sure John's story gets out there, and that was a big part of why we decided to revisit this.' She added: 'I've never done a documentary follow-up in this kind of way but we all felt that Boeing is such a big company and we all fly these airplanes all over the world. I don't want one of these planes falling out of the sky and I feel like I have a lot of inside knowledge and also connections to understanding what's going on inside of Boeing and I just felt like we've got to stay at this.'
Barnett's 32-Year Career and Safety Concerns
Barnett worked at Boeing for 32 years, witnessing the company's innovative peak but later seeing safety compromised by profit pursuits. Kennedy said: 'Over the course of his career he saw that vision deteriorate and focus much more on money and the bottom line at the expense of quality and safety.' Barnett was transferred to Boeing's non-union plant in Charleston to oversee 787 Dreamliner production. The film alleges workers with no aviation experience were hired and taught to 'rubber stamp paperwork' while managers pounded landing gear pins with sledgehammers. Barnett documented scrap parts—some rotted and painted red to indicate defects—being installed on passenger jets. He also conducted tests on the 787's emergency oxygen systems, finding a 25% failure rate, meaning one in four passengers would be left gasping for air if a plane depressurised at 40,000 feet. In 2024, when a door plug panel on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max blew out at 16,000 feet, many oxygen tanks did not work.
Boeing's Response and Whistleblower Retaliation
Boeing has expressed full confidence in the 787 Dreamliner, citing 'comprehensive work' to ensure quality and safety, and disputed what it called 'inaccurate' claims about the jet's structural integrity. Barnett had complained to management for years about unsafe systems and missing parts, alleging harassment, pay cuts, and instructions not to put safety concerns in writing to maintain 'culpable deniability.' In 2017, he filed a whistleblower complaint with the Department of Labor and took early retirement, suffering from depression and anxiety. He died while in Charleston for a deposition in a legal action alleging retaliation.
Corporate Decay Under CEO Jim McNerney
'Freefall' traces Boeing's decay to the 2005 arrival of CEO Jim McNerney, a protege of General Electric's Jack Welch, known for maximising shareholder value through mass layoffs, outsourcing, and cost-cutting. To build the 787 Dreamliner, the film alleges the board slashed the budget from $10bn to $5bn, outsourcing sections globally, leading to chaos, delays, and quality control issues. Boeing opened a second assembly line in South Carolina to avoid unionised labour in Seattle. Kennedy said: 'You had folks who are running the company who are trained with this idea that we should cut costs, that we should try to get as much money for the stockholders as possible, that we should get as much money for CEOs as possible and cut, cut, cut everything else including at the expense of safety.'
Senate Hearing and Hidden-Camera Footage
The film includes a 2024 Senate hearing where Republican Senator Josh Hawley grilled Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun: 'Is quality part of your compensation package because we've had multiple whistleblowers come before this committee and allege that Boeing is cutting every possible corner on quality and safety, not just in the past but now. They've alleged that you've eliminated safety inspections, that there are fewer inspectors doing quality inspections out there, they've alleged that when they raised issues and concerns they were reassigned, they were retaliated against, they were physically threatened. That doesn't sound like attention to quality to me and yet you're getting paid $33 million a year.' The film also features hidden-camera footage from Al Jazeera's investigative unit inside the South Carolina factory, where workers were asked if they would take an all-expenses-paid trip anywhere in the world if they had to fly on the 787 they were building. 'They all say no way, I'm not getting on this plane,' Kennedy said. 'These are the people who make the planes, so they know what's going on.'
Kennedy's Personal Flying Choices
Asked if she would fly on Boeing aircraft, Kennedy said: 'I don't feel terribly safe. Personally, I don't fly on the 737 Maxes and I don't fly on the Dreamliners, the 787. I do fly on other Boeing aircraft. It is, as everybody who flies knows, very hard to get around that entirely.'
Boeing's Lack of Cooperation and Skepticism
Boeing declined to cooperate for the film, as it did for 'Downfall' in 2022. However, Kennedy recalled a chance meeting with a Boeing employee after the first film: 'I asked her what the response was and she said, 'We did a screening of Downfall to the top 250 executives at Boeing and it was very powerful and I felt, and the room felt, you got everything right.'' But Kennedy remains skeptical: 'I've heard them talk the talk continually but I'm not seeing any kind of structural change or any of the meaningful changes that would lead me to believe this is a company that once again is focusing on excellence and focusing on safety and that is its top priority.'
Broader Kennedy Legacy and Kennedy Center Dispute
Kennedy's prolific filmography includes 'Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton', Oscar-nominated 'The Lady Days in Vietnam', 'The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib', and this year's 'Queen of Chess' about Judit Polgár. In 2012, she directed 'Ethel' about her mother. She commented on President Donald Trump's takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, calling it 'mortifying.' She said: 'I am very glad to see his name come down. It's been an unfortunate chapter, one of many for this administration, but it's an incredibly clear congressional law that states that the Kennedy Center is a memorial to my uncle John F Kennedy and it's meant to be a memorial and the name cannot change without congressional approval.' She added: 'The Kennedy Center issue is such a trigger for people because it's not just taking over something that is a celebration of an extraordinary and well-loved president, but it's also so inappropriate to put his name on a building that he has no power to rename. It's also this power grab.'
