Why Boeing 737 Max crashed - Netflix documentary Downfall reveals the dark secrets

The Boeing Company is famously known for its aircraft engineering, and uncompromising approach to ensuring passengers’ safety. From manufacturing military aircraft to commercial aircraft for almost a century, it gained a reputation worldwide as a publicly trustable aircraft manufacturer.  

But the fame took a toll when corporate greed started to influence their goal of creating the best aeroplanes.

Downfall: The Case Against Boeing delves into the story and shows what impounding greed can do to the best of the best and its disastrous impact on the public.

The documentary focuses on Boeing 737 MAX, the latest commercial aeroplane manufactured by Boeing.

Airlines demand more fuel-efficient planes to combat the cost as the fuel prices keep soaring worldwide. Boeing had an advantage in the market until its European rival Airbus entered the market with a more fuel-efficient aeroplane A320neo, which dented Boeing’s commercial success.

To fight with its competitors, Boeing re-engineered their famous four-decade-old 737 aircraft, introducing its more powerful engines that cost fuel less than before.

To win back the market, Boeing goes even to an extent to demonstrate that their new model works the same as the predecessor aircraft, putting behind a piece of essential information for pilots, which results in a fatal tragedy later on.

In 2018 and 2019, the new 737 MAX aircraft faces two crash incidents in a span of just five months, killing more than three hundred passengers combined.

The first half of the documentary tells the stories of the relatives of the victims who died in those crashes. Further, the documentary reveals that Boeing’s concealing of information to approve this aeroplane and attempt to dominate the market resulted in the loss of the passengers’ lives.

The agonising statements and the devastations of losing their loved ones by the families strike up the question in the audience’s mind, is corporate greed really worth the human lives?

The engineers in Boeing did not cause the fault in aircraft design. Instead, it was caused by corporate decisions.

Boeing’s reputation for producing trustworthy, safe aeroplanes started to tear off in the ‘90s when the then-CEO Harry Stonecipher focused on company profits rather than product safety, cutting on the cost of production and laying off workers to decrease the wage cost.

The output of the 737 MAX was also fuelled by the executives’ effort to increase the stock prices and fill their coffers in the end.

Even after the crashes, the company still lobbied for the continuation of the aircraft and chose to prioritise profits over people’s lives.

The ravaging greed created by modern American capitalism resulted in the fatal accidents, loss of human lives, lack of accountability, and the destruction of the reputation Boeing earned in many years.

Downfall: The Case Against Boeing is a warning about the dark side of American capitalism and shows what collateral damage corporate greed can cause, disregarding human lives.

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