Kriti Mehrotra
Directed by Rory Kennedy, Netflix’s ‘Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing’ is a documentary that delves into the alleged culture of cost-cutting and cover-ups at the titular aviation organization. It serves as the perfect sequel to ‘Downfall: The Case Against Boeing,’ since it not only underscores startling new ethical as well as safety concerns but also features additional whistleblowers. Among them is Samuel “Sam” Mohawk Jr., who has been with the company as a quality investigator/manager for over 15 years, while also long serving as a hopeful internal voice of reason.
Sam Mohawk Always Wanted to Pursue a Career in Aviation
As the son of a Navy personnel assigned to work on the F14 fighter jets and a native of the historic capital of aviation – Seattle, Washington – Sam developed an early passion for the industry. “My dad worked on the F14,” he said in the film. “…I always would go to the gates (of the military base) and watch the airplanes fly off.” The entire experience gave him such joy that he never stopped looking up at the sky when he heard a plane or a jet flying by. That, combined with his growing up in Jet City (the birthplace of The Boeing Company), made his interest skyrocket.
Sam thus pursued an education he knew would support his dreams of building a career in aviation, which panned out perfectly as he was recruited by Boeing straight out of school. He admired the corporation at the time since he had long heard stories about how it prioritized quality above all else, with management also always having the particular department’s back. So, he was over the moon to be hired as a Quality Investigator, but he claims he quickly realized the business’s practices had changed over time because the focus was allegedly now on profits.
After Years of Raising Concerns Internally, Sam Mohawk Became a Whistleblower in 2024
Sam joined Boeing as a Quality Investigator in 2011, taking his work seriously owing to the fact that he knew it directly affected the lives of those who trusted his employers while traveling. Therefore, seeing his managers/peers allegedly cut margins, fail to abide by regulations, ignore missing parts, and use imperfect units on the assembly line really rubbed him the wrong way. That feeling turned to devastation after two Boeing 737 Max aircraft crashed within 5 months – one on October 29, 2018, and the other on March 10, 2019, killing a total of 346 individuals.
However, what frustrated Sam in the months to follow was the Department of Justice’s decision to reach a $2.5 billion settlement with Boeing in exchange for a fine and a promise. In 2021, the company avowed to strengthen its compliance, safety, and quality programs over a 3-year period, but the Quality Investigator always believed it wouldn’t change anything. “The fine is nothing to Boeing,” he said in the documentary. “If… people are… subject to jail time, that’ll stop their practices,” indicating he thinks someone needed to be held accountable to inspire real change.
Sam even claims that the only thing to shift after the legal proceedings was his workload, as he ended up overseeing the quality of “ten times the number of airplanes” he usually handled. There was a Speak Up program that was put in place during this period, encouraging assembly-line workers and quality managers to raise concerns about bad behavior, ethical concerns, safety issues, and more. However, when he tried to file complaints about the deletion of several of his nonconformance records regarding parts that bypassed quality requirements or were missing, he claims he was retaliated against.
Sam alleges that instead of listening to his documented concerns, his higher-ups put “him through a corrective action, saying I wasn’t listening to leadership or doing my job.” Nevertheless, he continued to whistleblow internally, that is, until a door of a Boeing 737 Max blew out while in the air in January 2024, and a leading whistleblower died in March. That’s when he went public with his concerns, filing a complaint with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) in June of the same year. His documentation was made public by a Senate subcommittee shortly thereafter.
Sam Mohawk Currently Prefers to Lead a Quiet Life
Sam has always maintained that while he was resolved to whistleblowing internally for as long as needed, owing to the lives that are at stake, he “never wanted to go public. Because I’m just, at the end of the day, an employee. I would have been crucified.” However, he changed his mind in 2024 after seeing the impact of late whistleblower John Barnett’s work, and he wanted to continue on it so as to bring about a real difference within Boeing. Thankfully, his job is safe under the federal Whistleblower Protection Act, so he can continue living his childhood dreams while also working to improve the quality standards of Boeing planes from the inside out.
In other words, today, Sam is still happily serving as a Quality Investigator at Boeing in Renton, Washington, where his responsibilities include tracking nonconforming or faulty 737 Max components. We should also mention that since he went public with his claims to OSHA, he has been honored with the 2024 Blueprint for Free Speech North America Whistleblowing Prize. His courage, integrity, and hard work have all been recognized. On a personal level, though, Sam now prefers to lead a quiet life well away from the limelight for privacy and safety reasons. So, all we know for certain is that his priorities as of writing are his family, his career, his passion for aviation, and his love for motorbikes.
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