Federal investigators are close to charging a former pilot for Boeing with misleading the FAA about problems tied to two fatal crashes of the 737 Max. Mark Forkner, who was the company's chief technical pilot when the plane was developed, would be the first Boeing employee prosecuted over the 737 Max's failures, the Wall Street Journal reports. Forkner, who no longer works for Boeing, was the company's contact person for federal regulators on training pilots to fly the new aircraft. Lawyers for Forkner, Boeing, and the Justice Department had no comment. Forkner's lawyer has said in the past that his client would never do anything to endanger anyone on the plane.
The possible charges weren't clear. A US House investigation found that Forkner persuaded the FAA to keep details of a new flight-control system out of pilot manuals for the 737 Max. Investigators have said the automated system, MCAS, sent the two Max airliners that crashed into nosedives. The system was designed to not kick in often, but that changed during development, when Boeing gave it more control and increased the scenarios in which it would be used. A settlement between Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration said the company and its employees "intentionally withheld and concealed" information about the change.
Another former Boeing pilot who worked with regulators also is under investigation. The settlement agreement said employees had said in chat messages to each other that they felt pressure to win FAA approval for pilot training that could be completed in just hours on a tablet or computer. The model was formally certified in 2017, per CBS. Boeing agreed to pay nearly $255 million in the settlement, plus compensation to airlines and the families of those killed in the two crashes. (More Boeing 737 stories.)
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