If you're nervous about flying already, you'll be downright panicked if you're booked onto one of a couple Boeing models after watching the Netflix original documentary Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing, which details how a string of bottom-line obsessed CEOs dismantled the previous culture of safety and quality in favor of outsourcing, inexperienced workers, ignoring quality problems, and retaliating against those who tried to blow the whistle, even after a pair of 737 Max crashes which killed hundreds of passengers and crews.
A sequel to the 2022 Netflix documentary Downfall: The Case Against Boeing (which I didn't even know existed until I mistyped the title of Freefall into Wikipedia) which covered the 737 Max crashes, Freefall focuses on troubles with the 787 line which the bean counters decided would have various sections fabricated all over the world to save money then assemble them in America only to find many things didn't fit and subcontractors didn't observe the same quality standards, not that Boeing was as well.
The death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who was testifying against his former employer, who'd forced him out after his constant attempts to save his company from cheap bosses is played up as a murder (it was ruled suicide) for drama, but other former and current quality managers also appear to bemoan the crash dive profit chasing has put the firm in.
While it's tempting to read the slant of these documentaries as the usual Leftist attacks on capitalism and the ever-popular "corporate greed" - presented on a streaming platform that keeps jacking up their prices to the point where many are forced to drop it - the reality remains that forgetting that you make a product with the potential to kill hundreds of innocent people at a time and billions rely upon for travel to chase more profit is a sin that needs to be called out and shamed into correction.
Score: 7/10. Catch it on Netflix.
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