Film Review: Downfall: The case against Boeing

Family members of victims from the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash hold photographs during a vigil outside the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. Photo / Getty Images

Downfall: The case against Boeing (PG13 (USA), 119 mins) streaming on Netflix
Directed by Rory Kennedy

Even people who love long-haul flights will find Downfall sobering.

Those who are already nervous about flying will have their worst fears confirmed. The film's director Rory Kennedy told Anne Thompson interviewing her for IndieWire, "I wouldn't get on a 737 Max today… due to ongoing concerns about its safety."

Rory, interestingly the 11th child of Robert Kennedy, born six months after he was assassinated, had developed a social conscience and become an experienced documentary film-maker by the time of Boeing's two 737 Max crashes.

First, in October 2018, a Lion Air flight went into the Java Sea killing 189 people. Next, in March 2019, Ethiopian Airlines crashed soon after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing 157 people.

"If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going" was no longer a widely supported saying. When Boeing started pointing the finger at the pilots, Kennedy's focus turned from making films on addiction and exploitation to exploring what exactly had gone on behind the scenes at Boeing, to ask the key question: who can be trusted?

Downfall is a very well-made documentary, unsurprisingly a success at Sundance and when Kennedy pitched it to Netflix.

It gradually emerges that there was a design fault with the 737 Max, involving a jackscrew pin that operates the stabiliser trim by triggering the Maneuver Characteristics Augmentation System, the MCAS.

But none of the pilots of 10,000 aircraft operating in 150 countries at the time, had ever heard of the MCAS. It was listed in the training manual, but only in the abbreviations, with no explanation of its role or what to do when it was activated. No simulator training involving the MCAS was required, before the Lion Air crash or afterward.

That technical background is only part of the film. There's also an opportunity to hear from and sympathise with the Lion Air pilot's widow and the father of a Lion Air victim.

Senator Peter Defazio headed the investigation for the Transport Investigation Committee, referring to Boeing's culture of concealment, while Andy Pasztor, for the Wall St Journal, shines a light on the way share value trumped corporate responsibility.

Boeing pulled the wool over the eyes of the FAA, deliberately concealing the design fault and offering a quick fix software solution. Later, the FAA brought charges against Boeing for attempting to defraud it.

In the end, Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg, who couldn't look the victims' families in the eye at the Senate hearing, resigned with a pay-out of $62 million and after Boeing paid a fine of $2.5 billion, including a $500 million fund for crash victims' compensation, charges against them were dropped.

The 737 Max still flies with a single MCAS, making the plane susceptible to nose-diving unnecessarily, such as when a balloon or a bird hits its sensors.

If any traveller has got as far as the airbridge without checking if it's a 737 Max they're getting onto, Downfall strongly suggests they are asking for trouble. Highly recommended.

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