Charged with Misleading FAA Regulators, Withholding Information

A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas returned an indictment today charging a former Chief Technical Pilot for The Boeing Company with deceiving the FAA’s Aircraft Evaluation Group (AEG) in connection with their evaluation of the Boeing 737 MAX, as well as scheming to defraud Boeing’s U.S.-based airline customers to obtain tens of millions of dollars for Boeing. 

Mark A. Forkner, 49, former Chief Technical Pilot for Boeing, has been charged with two counts of fraud involving aircraft parts in interstate commerce and four counts of wire fraud. If convicted, he could receive a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count of the former, and up to 20 years for each count of the latter. The charges stem from his involvement in the development of the aircraft, its testing, and alleged obfuscation of inherent issues with the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). 

“Forkner allegedly abused his position of trust by intentionally withholding critical information about MCAS during the FAA evaluation and certification of the 737 MAX and from Boeing’s U.S.?based airline customers,” said to Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr, of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “In doing so, he deprived airlines and pilots from knowing crucial information about an important part of the airplane’s flight controls. Regulators like the FAA serve a vital function to ensure the safety of the flying public. To anyone contemplating criminally impeding a regulator’s function, this indictment makes clear that the Justice Department will pursue the facts and hold you accountable.” 

Forkner’s role in the 737 MAX Flight Technical Team made him responsible for providing the FAA with accurate information about the differences between the aircraft and its 737 NG predecessor for use in its Flight Standardization Board Report (FSB). In November 2016, Forkner is alleged to have discovered information about a vital change to the MCAS and intentionally withheld the information. The alleged deceit caused the AEG group to delete all reference to the MCAS from the final version of the 737 MAX FSB Report. The resulting manuals given to Boeing’s U.S.-based airline customers lacked any information about the system in their training materials. 

The omission of the MCAS data came under increasing scrutiny as the system was found to be a contributing factor to the loss of almost 350 lives in the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes. The findings prompted the FAA to ground all 737 MAX aircraft in the United States, with many governing aviation bodies worldwide doing the same. 

The Chicago field offices of the FBI and the DOT-OIG are investigating the case, and Forkner’s indictment must move to trial before a final verdict is reached. 

FMI: www.justice.gov/news, www.faa.gov, www.boeing.com