DALLAS — Editor's note: The video above is from a report on Nov. 18, 2020.
A Boeing test pilot has been indicted on fraud charges related to his work in evaluating the 737 Max jetliner, the same model that was involved in two deadly crashes.
Prosecutors said Mark Forkner was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury and accused of deceiving safety regulators who were evaluating the plane.
The indictment accuses Forkner of giving false and incomplete information to the Federal Aviation Administration about a flight-control system on the plane, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).
The control system was implicated in the crashes. It pushed the noses of the planes down, and pilots were unable to regain control.
In 2019, Reuters first reported text messages from 2016 that showed high-level Boeing employees knew about problems with the plane’s new flight control system.
Boeing turned over those messages to federal regulators, who called them “concerning.”
In the five-year-old text messages, Forkner told a Boeing co-worker that he experienced problems with the MCAS during a flight simulator session. MCAS was designed, in part, to prevent the MAX from stalling in certain situations.
In additional messages, Forkner said, “So I basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly) about MCAS.”
“Forkner allegedly withheld crucial information about the Boeing 737 MAX and deceived the FAA, showing blatant disregard for his responsibilities and the safety of airline customers and crews,” said Assistant Director Calvin Shivers of the FBI. “The FBI will continue to hold individuals like Forkner accountable for their fraudulent acts which undermine public safety.”
Forkner is expected to make his first appearance in court on Friday in Fort Worth.