Aviation
After Air India Dreamliner Crash, Indians Urged to Watch This Netflix Doc on Boeing Cover-Ups
“They Knew It Would Crash”: Netflix Doc Reveals Boeing’s Shocking Truth of the Boeing’s recent past.
In the aftermath of the tragic Air India Boeing Dreamliner crash—just seconds after takeoff—Indians are not only grappling with grief, but with a growing sense of unease about the aircraft they board so frequently. The crash has reignited serious concerns about aviation safety, aircraft manufacturers’ accountability, and whether the public is being told the whole truth. At the center of this conversation is a must-watch Netflix documentary: Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.
Directed by Rory Kennedy, the powerful investigative film examines the systemic failures that led to two catastrophic crashes of Boeing 737 Max aircraft—Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019—claiming a combined 346 lives. These weren’t freak accidents. They were preventable tragedies born from corporate greed, weak regulation, and deliberate concealment of mechanical flaws. And we are currently living in a tragedy of this deadly crash involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Air India, which claimed 241 lives
Bet they know by now. If it doesn’t come out in 2-3 days. Then they are hiding. With @BoeingAirplanes US, UK govt. investigators @DGCAIndia @airindia this can’t turn into a corporate PR exercise. #MCAS #planecrash #AirIndiaFlightCrash #Dreamliner #Boeing https://t.co/Ut9Lz8qpEV
— Ashutosh | आशुतोष | آشوتوش (@AshBeeFRY) June 13, 2025
What makes this documentary essential viewing for Indian audiences right now is its chilling relevance. It reveals how Boeing, once a beacon of engineering excellence, knowingly put defective planes into the sky, prioritising silence and delay over transparency and safety. After the first crash, rather than grounding the fleet, Boeing blamed the pilots. Only after a second plane went down—under nearly identical circumstances—did the global outrage force regulators to act.
With Air India operating a sizable Boeing Dreamliner fleet, the film raises uncomfortable but necessary questions: Are we flying safe aircraft? Are our aviation regulators vigilant enough—or are they susceptible to the same pressures that compromised oversight in the U.S.?
In Downfall, whistleblowers and journalists expose how Boeing’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS)—a faulty auto-correction system—was the root cause of both crashes. Worse, internal reports revealed Boeing and the FAA knew the risk: the planes could crash 15 times over their service lifespan. They gambled with hundreds of lives, hoping to fix the system before another disaster occurred.
Rory Kennedy doesn’t just narrate a story of technical failure. She explores how corporate priorities shifted from innovation and safety to appeasing Wall Street. The film features testimonies from grieving families, aviation experts, and even U.S. congressmen, painting a damning picture of regulatory capture and moral decay.
India has already had its fair share of aviation scares, from the Air India Express crash in Kozhikode (2020) to frequent near-miss reports. With international manufacturers supplying a majority of our commercial aircraft, this documentary offers not only perspective—but a wake-up call.
As Rory Kennedy says, “All those agencies failed us.” It’s time for Indians to ask: are ours doing any better?
Downfall: The Case Against Boeing is available for streaming on Netflix India. In light of recent events, it’s not just a documentary—it’s a public safety manual.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the publication
