Federal prosecutors investigate whether Boeing pilot knowingly lies to FAA
(VOVWORLD) - US federal prosecutors investigating Boeing are examining whether the U.S. planemaker knowingly misled the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) while it was seeking approval for its 737 MAX jet, the New York Times reported.
 Grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are seen parked in an aerial photo at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, US, July 1, 2019. (REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo) |
The prosecutors are focusing on whether Mark Forkner, a top Boeing pilot, intentionally lied to authorities about the nature of new flight control software on the jet, according to the report.
Forkner had said he might have unintentionally misled regulators, in a series of internal messages from 2016. The messages appeared to have been the first publicly known observations that the MCAS anti-stall system behaved erratically during testing before the aircraft entered service.
The comments by Forkner were among those pinpointed by USlawmakers as evidence Boeing knew about problems with flight control software well before two crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.