allegation of fraud
He Checked Out the Clammy Boeing 737 Max, Now He’s Faced With 100 Years of Imprisonment: Test Pilot Sees Himself as a Scape
Boeing 737 MAX: Two such machines crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia in October 2018 and March 2019, killing a total of 346 people.
© Jason Redmond / AFP
Imprisonment of 100 years is the maximum sentence that Mark Forkner can face. The former chief test pilot of the Boeing 737 MAX planes has been charged with fraud. He denies the allegations.
The former test pilot accused of his role in the devastating crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX planes considers himself a scapegoat. “This tragedy deserves a search for the truth – not a scapegoat,” Mark Forkner said through his lawyers on Friday (local time). The former chief technical pilot is said to have provided the FAA with “incorrect, inaccurate and incomplete information regarding a new part of the flight controls of the Boeing 737 MAX,” as announced by the US Department of Justice.
“If the government takes this matter to court, the truth will show that Mark did not cause this tragedy, he did not lie and should not be charged,” said his lawyer, David Gerger.
The 49-year-old is to answer in front of a jury in the US state of Texas for fraud. “The Justice Department will not condone fraud — especially in industries where so much is at stake,” Texas Attorney Chad Meacham said. If convicted, Forkner faces up to 100 years in prison.
The Forkner is said to have a 737 MAX . was aware of the problems of
737 MAX was registered in March 2017. Forkner was a direct liaison between the aircraft manufacturer and the FAA. According to documents released in early 2020, he bragged about being able to trick his FAA colleagues into obtaining certification for the MCAS stabilization system developed specifically for the Boeing 737 MAX.
According to court documents, Forkner was made aware of a problem with the MCAS. In a message to a colleague published in 2019, he said, for example, that the stabilization system made it difficult to fly the plane in a simulator. However, they made a conscious decision not to share this information with the FAA, which did not require special training for pilots to use the system.
In October 2018 and March 2019, two such machines crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killing a total of 346 people. In both the cases MCAS had submitted wrong data. In March 2019, a worldwide flight ban was imposed on Boeing’s previous bestseller, which was lifted only at the end of 2020 after a system revision.
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