Downfall: The Case Against Boeing | |
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Directed by | Rory Kennedy |
Written by | Mark Bailey Keven McAlester |
Based on | Crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX planes |
Produced by |
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Cinematography | Aaron Gully |
Edited by | Don Kleszy |
Music by | Gary Lionelli |
Production companies | Imagine Documentaries Moxie Films |
Distributed by | Netflix |
Release date |
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Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Downfall: The Case Against Boeing is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Rory Kennedy. [1] Interviewing relevant people and featuring archival footage, the documentary looks into the events throughout the history of the aircraft manufacturer company Boeing that led to the crashes of two 737 MAX planes and occurring within a short time span, as well as its subsequent investigation. The film sides with interviewees in criticizing the capitalization of Boeing, noting that the urge to beat major competitor Airbus led to the neglect of component failures within the 737 MAX.
Downfall premiered in a virtual screening at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2022, [2] before being released on Netflix on February 18 as a Netflix Original Documentary. The film received wide critical acclaim for its comprehensiveness, narrative structure, and emotions, mostly aimed towards Kennedy and editor Don Kleszy. The documentary renewed public attention on the 737 MAX 8 case, causing further criticism of Boeing, who had initially declined to participate in filming and rebuked the film after its release. [3] [ failed verification ]
The documentary examines the crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX planes which claimed the lives of 346 people on board and how Boeing may have been more concerned with financial gain over the safety of their passengers. [4]
Kennedy said about the 21st-century history of Boeing:
There were many decades when Boeing did extraordinary things by focusing on excellence and safety and ingenuity. Those three virtues were seen as the key to profit. It could work, and beautifully. And then they were taken over by a group that decided Wall Street was the end-all, be-all. There needs to be a balance in play, so you have to elect representatives that hold the companies responsible for the public interest, rather than just lining their own pocketbooks. [5]
The film was released on February 18, 2022, and has an 91% approval rating based on 34 reviews on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "With impressive clarity, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing reveals corporate corruption that's enraging in its callousness and frightening in its scope." [6] [7]
7.42 million hours were viewed globally on Netflix between February 13, 2022 and February 20, 2022. [8]
Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy is an American documentary filmmaker. Kennedy has made documentary films that center on social issues such as addiction, her opposition to nuclear power, the treatment of prisoners-of-war, and the politics of the Mexican border fence. She is the youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel.
Georgian Airways, formerly Airzena, is the privately owned flag carrier of Georgia, with its headquarters in Tbilisi. Its main base is Tbilisi International Airport. The company filed for bankruptcy on 31 December 2021, linked to a restructuring procedure, and it has been for sale since January 2022. The airline continues to operate a limited number of profitable flights during the restructuring phase.
Peter Anthony DeFazio is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Oregon's 4th congressional district from 1987 to 2023. He is a member of the Democratic Party and is a founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A native of Massachusetts and a veteran of the United States Air Force Reserve, he previously served as a county commissioner in Lane County, Oregon. On December 1, 2021, DeFazio announced he would not seek reelection in 2022.
Downfall may refer to:
The Boeing Company is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support services. Boeing is among the largest global aerospace manufacturers; it is the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world based on 2022 revenue and is the largest exporter in the United States by dollar value. Boeing was founded by William Boeing in Seattle, Washington, on July 15, 1916. The present corporation is the result of the merger of Boeing with McDonnell Douglas on August 1, 1997.
Andy Pasztor is a former journalist with The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of the 1995 book When the Pentagon was for Sale: Inside America's Biggest Defense Scandal. Pasztor also appeared in the 2022 documentary film Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, which examined Boeing's role in two fatal crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX: Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) and competes with the Airbus A320neo family. The series was announced in August 2011, first flown in January 2016, and certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in March 2017. The first 737 MAX delivered to a customer was a MAX 8 to Malindo Air, which accepted and began operating the aircraft in May 2017.
Dennis A. Muilenburg is an American engineer, business executive and a former president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Boeing, a multinational aerospace and defense company. He was CEO from 2015 to 2019, when he was fired in the aftermath of two crashes of the 737 MAX and its subsequent groundings.
Mark Daniel Bailey is an American writer, best known for his documentary films, including Last Days in Vietnam (2014), Downfall: The Case Against Boeing (2022), and The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari (2022). Bailey, together with his wife, filmmaker Rory Kennedy, own Moxie Films, a documentary film production company. The company produces documentaries "for broadcast and cable networks, including Netflix, HBO, PBS, A&E, National Geographic, Showtime, Discovery Channel, MTV, TLC, Lifetime Television, the Oxygen Network, and the Sundance Channel as well as for educational foundations and philanthropic organizations."
Lion Air Flight 610 (JT610/LNI610) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Tangerang, to Depati Amir Airport, Pangkal Pinang, in Indonesia. On 29 October 2018, the Boeing 737 MAX operating the route, carrying 181 passengers and 8 crew members, crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff killing all 189 occupants on board. It was the first major accident and hull loss of a 737 MAX, a then recently-introduced aircraft. It is the deadliest accident involving the Boeing 737 family. One diver also died during recovery operations.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. On 10 March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft which operated the flight crashed near the town of Bishoftu six minutes after takeoff. All 149 passengers and 8 crew members on board died.
The Boeing 737 MAX passenger airliner was grounded worldwide between March 2019 and December 2020 and again in 2024. – after 346 people died in two similar crashes in less than five months: Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019. The Federal Aviation Administration initially affirmed the MAX's continued airworthiness, claiming to have insufficient evidence of accident similarities. By March 13, the FAA followed behind 51 concerned regulators in deciding to ground the aircraft. All 387 aircraft delivered to airlines were grounded by March 18.
The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) is a flight stabilizing feature developed by Boeing that became notorious for its role in two fatal accidents of the 737 MAX in 2018 and 2019, which killed all 346 passengers and crew among both flights.
This is the history of American aerospace manufacturing company Boeing.
The Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program was established by FAA Order 8100.15 . The ODA, in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), grants airworthiness designee authority to organizations or companies. The regulations addressing the ODA program are found in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations part 183, subpart D, sections 183.41 through 813.67.
Stephen Marshall Dickson is an American former Air Force pilot and Delta Air Lines executive who served as the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration from August 2019 to March 2022.
The two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 which were similar in nature – both aircraft were newly delivered and crashed shortly after takeoff – and the subsequent groundings of the global 737 MAX fleet drew mixed reactions from multiple organizations. Boeing expressed its sympathy to the relatives of the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash victims, while simultaneously defending the aircraft against any faults and suggesting the pilots had insufficient training, until rebutted by evidence. After the 737 MAX fleet was globally grounded, starting in China with the Civil Aviation Administration of China the day after the second crash, Boeing provided several outdated return-to-service timelines, the earliest of which was "in the coming weeks" after the second crash. On October 11, 2019, David L. Calhoun replaced Dennis Muilenburg as chairman of Boeing, then succeeded Muilenburg's role as chief executive officer in January 2020.
The Boeing 737 MAX groundings has had a deep financial effect on the aviation industry and a significant effect on the national economy of the United States. No airline took delivery of the MAX during the groundings. Boeing slowed MAX production to 42 aircraft per month until January 2020, when they halted until the aircraft was reapproved by regulators. Boeing has suffered directly through increased costs, loss of sales and revenue, loss of reputation, victims litigation, client compensation, decreased credit rating and lowered stock value. In January 2020, the company estimated a loss of $18.4 billion for 2019, and it reported 183 canceled MAX orders for the year.
The Boeing 737 MAX was initially certified in 2017 by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Global regulators grounded the plane in 2019 following fatal crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. Both crashes were linked to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a new automatic flight control feature. Investigations into both crashes determined that Boeing and the FAA favored cost-saving solutions, which ultimately produced a flawed design of the MCAS instead. The FAA's Organization Designation Authorization program, allowing manufacturers to act on its behalf, was also questioned for weakening its oversight of Boeing.
Flight/Risk is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Karim Amer and Omar Mullick. The documentary examines the crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX planes through the perspective of surviving family members, lawyers, and whistleblowers.