WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: New Netflix documentary Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing, investigates the story of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who was found dead in his truck in 2024
John Barnett was found dead on March 9 from a ‘self-inflicted’ wound
John Barnett worked for Boeing for 32 years before turning whistleblower and dying in mysterious circumstances.
New Netflix documentary, Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing, explores the story of Barnett, who publicly condemned Boeing’s safety processes before he was found dead in his truck. He was in the process of testifying against the company.
From 2010, Barnett was employed as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant, which built the longhaul 787 Dreamliner, before retiring in 2017 on health grounds.
After Boeing merged with a former rival McDonnell Douglas, several former Boeing employees alleged the company started focussing more on increasing profits rather than safety and quality.
Barnett told the Today Show before his death: “From day one, it’s just all been about schedule, and hurry up, and just get it done. Push a plane out. We’re behind schedule. We don’t have time to worry about issues that y’all bring up.”
He alleged there were severe production and safety flaws such as defective oxygen systems and metal shavings near critical wiring on the 787 Dreamliner program.
Just before he left Boeing in 2017, Barnett filed a complaint against the company, accusing bosses of retaliating against him for raising safety concerns. He was outspoken on the issue with journalists – and in 2022 appeared in acclaimed director Rory Kennedy’s investigative film Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.
But then, on March 9, 2024, Barnett was found dead in his truck with a gunshot wound to his head.
Deeply affected by Barnett’s death and ongoing concerns about Boeing’s safety culture, Kennedy reunited with her team to produce the documentary sequel, Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing, which is being released on August 19, 2026.
Speaking to the Guardian about Barnett’s death, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kennedy said: “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.
“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.”
Details of the circumstances surrounding Barnett’s death came to light when his mother sued Boeing in a wrongful death suit in March 2025. The complaint alleged that Barnett was subjected to a campaign of harassment, abuse and humiliation after he raised concerns about safety issues. It further claimed that the conduct of the company was “the clear, foreseeable cause” of his death. In September that year, Boeing settled the lawsuit, agreeing to pay at least $50,000 to Barnett’s mother, who, in return, agreed to drop her claims that the company contributed to her son’s death by suicide.
The complaint contained a copy of Barnett’s suicide note, and the annexes presented the full police report concluding that he died by his own hand.
In conversations with Fortune in March 2025, the family’s longstanding counsel Rob Turkewitz added further details on his client’s last hours.
He said that on the evening of March 8, 2024, Barnett left the law offices of Boeing’s outside counsel in Charleston after testifying for two days in his OSHA case against the company. OSHA rules make it unlawful to retaliate against a whistleblower.
Barnett was giving his account of how Boeing allegedly violated its own policies and procedures, and FAA rules, during his seven years as a quality inspector at the North Charleston plant.
He’d delayed a trip back to his home in Louisiana to finish his deposition the next day, which was a Saturday. Videos cited in the police report show Barnett leaving the hotel around 8:30pm, and getting in his orange Dodge truck.
When Barnett failed to show up the next morning for his final round of testimony, Turkewitz called the Holiday Inn to conduct a welfare check. It was then that a hotel employee saw Barnett slumped in the front seat of his vehicle.
Charleston police arrived to discover Barnett barefoot and clutching a Smith and Wesson pistol in his right hand. His right temple showed a bullet entry wound, and an exit wound appeared in the back of his head.
On the seat next to Barnett’s body lay a message written on a single page of a red-covered notebook, with sentences written in all directions.
It contained phrases including: “America come together or die!!! Pray that the motherfk…ers who destroyed my life pay!!! I pray that Boeing pays!!! Bury me face down so that Boeing and their lying ass leaders can kiss my ass.”
Elsewhere: “I can’t do this any longer!!! F-k Boeing!!! Family and friends, I love you’ll [sic].”
“To my family and friends, I found my purpose! I am at peace! I love you more John/Mitch Barnett aka Swampy Fununcle Mitch.”
The complaint also included a heartbreaking email that Barnett sent Turkewitz in 2021, which read: “I can understand the direct costs that we can establish, ie lost pay, bonuses, etc. What I’m struggling with is how do you restore a person’s overall outlook on life? I used to be a very happy-go-lucky guy who loved his job and the products he built. I had a very positive outlook on life. Boeing absolutely destroyed my outlook on life. What is a person’s ‘outlook on life’ worth? How to put a price on that?'”
Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing is scheduled to debut on Netflix on August 19, 2026 .
For mental health support, contact the Samaritans on 116 123, email them at jo@samaritans.org or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch