Federal prosecutors 'will criminally charge a former Boeing test pilot' they suspect of misleading FAA regulators about 737 MAX safety issues

Daily Mail ^ | PUBLISHED: 01:43 EDT, 17 September 2021 | UPDATED: 01:49 EDT, 17 September 2021 | By KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

Federal prosecutors are preparing to criminally charge a former Boeing pilot who is suspected of misleading regulators about safety issues during the approval process for the troubled 737 MAX, according to a new report.

Mark Forkner, Boeing's 737 MAX chief technical pilot during the aircraft's development, could face charges in the next few weeks, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.

Prosecutors have been probing whether Forkner intentionally lied to the Federal Aviation Administration about the nature of new flight control software on the jet, which suffered two deadly crashes within months, killing 346 people.

Forkner's attorney David Gerger did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com early on Friday.

Gerger has previously said that his client would never intentionally hide a safety issue.

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

'Mark flew the MAX. His Air Force buddies flew the MAX. He would never put himself, his friends or any passenger in an unsafe plane,' Gerger told the Journal in 2019.

It wasn't immediately clear what criminal charges might be brought against Forkner, but Boeing previously admitted in a settlement that two unnamed employees conspired to defraud the FAA about MAX training issues to benefit themselves and the company.

Forkner had said he might have unintentionally misled regulators, in a series of internal messages from 2016 that became public in October.

The messages appeared to have been the first publicly known observations that the crucial MCAS anti-stall system behaved erratically during testing before the aircraft entered service.

Malfunctions with the MCAS system, complicated by inadequate training, were implicated in the fatal crashes of Lion Air 610 in 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines 302 just months later.

[z3n]

test pilots don’t conspire against federal regulators and investigators all by themselves.

[stinkerpot65]

Got to have a scapegoat...

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

Forkner persuaded regulators to approve excluding details of the new MCAS flight-control system from the 737 MAX's pilot manuals, according to a U.S. House investigation.

Boeing benefited from the exclusion, because it reduced the mandatory new training for pilots who had flown older models of the 737, making the upgraded jet more attractive to potential airline customers.

That Boeing benefited is understood, but how would Forkner benefit? He wouldn't. He's being railroaded.

[Flick Lives]

Then in May Boeing also agreed to pay a $17 million fine and improve its supply chain and production practices after installing unapproved equipment on hundreds of planes.

—

Sounds like Boeing has larger issues of corporate corruption than a single test pilot.

[Carl Vehse]

These actions by the Boeing executives and employees, and governmental officials, might be compared to the actions by McDonnell Douglas executives and employees (and contractors) in the 1970s case of the DC-10 and the failure of its rear cargo door and the subsequent damage to the control system and loss of lives.

The DC-10 case is discussed in detail in the book, The DC-10 Case: A Study in Applied Ethics, Technology, and Society (John H. Fielder, Douglas Birsch, editors, State University of New York Press, 1992, 360 pages).

[Renfrew]

“test pilots don’t conspire against federal regulators and investigators all by themselves.”

Yep, the higher-ups destroyed Boeing by creating a culture that prioritized accountants over engineers. This is the result.

[mythenjoseph]

He’s a witch!....He’s a witch!(Monty Python film)Same mentality of anyone who could think that a pilot kept all of the screwed up system away from the BRILLIANT COLLEGE puke engineers and software developers of Boeing with misleading text’x. OR maybe it all depends on what your definition of what misleading is?

[ProudDeplorable]

If it’s the case that he mislead the FAA then there must have been some monetary reason. Test pilots have nothing to gain by misleading the FAA unless they are compensated for it. Who was doing the compensation?

[Gen.Blather]

“That Boeing benefited is understood, but how would Forkner benefit? He wouldn’t. He’s being railroaded.”

While working for another company, I spent several weeks at Boing’s main development center. It was almost like being immersed in a separate culture where there are ridged rules. It became apparent that the Boeing employees thought the company could alter any government rule they wanted to. Need more money? The Boeing agents would massage their Congressional toys and it would appear. Obviously, everything has limits and they understood that, but they seemed to view the government as a poorly managed, somewhat cantankerous subsidiary.

As for the test pilot, he’s being sacrificed to protect Boeing.

I think Boeing was absolutely great for about the first fifty years after WWII. But I believe America would be better served now by breaking it up.

[z3n]

Yep, the higher-ups destroyed Boeing by creating a culture that prioritized accountants over engineers. This is the result.

~~~

The sad thing is, if Boeing had a do-over, there is a decent probability that they would have taken a different philosophy on accountability, hopefully at the organizational level. Then again, they might have just fixed the problem with the benefit of hind-sight realizing how much they'd be shooting themselves in the foot, and still sweep it all under the rug.



A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

[DennisR]

The CEO when the first Max was delivered was an engineer, not an accountant.

[PAR35]

Nice paychecks and retirements for ‘team players’. It usually doesn’t work out as well for ‘loose cannons’ and whistleblowers.

Look at the corrupt criminals at GM that escaped justice for their conspiracy about the ignition system.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yep, and the lower on the totem pole, the bigger the target.

[Blood of Tyrants]

One of my college professors in engineering once said that the only real numbers have a dollar sign in front of them. (For non-math people, there are such things as imaginary numbers.)

[nagant]

So these 300+ negligent homicides are all this one Boeing employee’s fault, huh? What ever happened to “trust but VERIFY” in Obama’s FAA?

The FAA shares guilt.

[fuzzylogic]

Exactly. This is pathetic...there’s no way that this escaped engineering. There’s no way that Boeing wasn’t aware. This only happens from pressure from management.

[BikerJoe]

These actions by the Boeing executives and employees, and governmental officials, might be compared to the actions by McDonnell Douglas executives and employees (and contractors) in the 1970s case of the DC-10 and the failure of its rear cargo door and the subsequent damage to the control system and loss of lives.

Everyone seems to think that Boeing was clean before this, but look back at the 737 rudder actuator problem that they just denied, denied, denied that it was an airplane problem.

[minnesota_bound]

Nor do they design the aircraft.
Will the ceo and the sales guys be indicted next?

[jroehl]

The 737 MAX software was written by Indians.