A US federal grand jury has indicted a former Boeing chief technical pilot for fraud for allegedly deceiving aviation regulators evaluating the safety of the 737 Max jet.
Mark Forkner, 49, who now lives in Texas, was charged with providing the Federal Aviation Administration with false and incomplete information about the aeroplane’s flight control process, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS.
The flight control system, which can push down the jet’s nose repeatedly, was a critical factor in two crashes of the 737 Max in five months over 2018 and 2019 that killed a combined 346 people. The jet was grounded worldwide for almost two years, and Boeing paid $2.5bn in January as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.