Former Boeing chief technical pilot indicted for fraud over 737 Max safety

Mark A. Forkner, Boeing’s former Chief Technical pilot, has been indicted for fraud by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas. He is charged with deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Evaluation Group (FAA AEG) in connection with its evaluation of Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft. The complaint alleges Forkner provided the agency with “materially false, inaccurate, and incomplete information about the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS)”, which, because of his alleged deception, a key document published by the FAA AEG lacked any reference to MCAS. In turn, airplane manuals and pilot-training materials also lacked any reference to