A federal grand jury indicted a former chief test pilot with Boeing for fraud by deceiving the FAA over the MCAS flight controls in the Boeing 737 MAX, a model of airplane that led to two fatal crashes killing 346 people in 2018 and 2019.
Mark Forkner, 49, allegedly deceived the FAA as it evaluated the 737 MAX and provided the agency with false, inaccurate and incomplete about MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, according to court documents on Thursday.
This deception meant that a key document published by the FAA lacked any reference to MCAS and Boeing’s airline customers were deprived of important information about testing of pilots on the new planes.
“He deprived airlines and pilots from knowing crucial information about an important part of the airplane’s flight controls,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr., in a statement.
Acting U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham for the North District of Texas said Forkner was attempting to save Boeing money in his actions. “His callous choice to mislead the FAA hampered the agency’s ability to protect the flying public and left pilots in the lurch, lacking information about certain 737 MAX flight controls,” Meacham added.
Boeing first began marketing the 737 MAX in June 2011 and the FAA was required to set the minimum level of training for a pilot of the plane. Officials said Forkner discovered the change to MCAS in 2016 but intentionally withheld his insights and the FAA deleted all references to MCAS; pilots flying the 737 MAX for U.S. airlines were not provided any information about MCAS in materials.
Forkner is expected to appear Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton on two counts of fraud involving aircraft parts used in interstate commerce and four counts of wire fraud. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count of wire fraud.
While Forkner is being fingered in the latest indictment, the FAA earlier came under fire for problems in oversight of Boeing and Boeing itself was accused of a lack transparency. The House Transportation Committee concluded the crashes were “a horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA."
In January, Boeing agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion as part of a settlement agreement with the Justice Department which said employees had engaged in fraudulent and deceptive conduct with the MAX planes.
In reaching that agreement, Boeing said two former Boeing pilots, including Forkner, had deceived regulators about the safety of the MCAS flight control software.
In a statement at the time, Boeing CEO David Calhoun said the airplane maker “fell short of our values and expectations.”
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