‘CALLOUS CHOICE’

Boeing’s Chief Test Pilot Lied About 737 Max Controls to Save Cash, Feds Say

Mark Forkner has been indicted for fraud.

Boeing’s former chief test pilot lied to federal authorities about the controls of the 737 Max aircraft “in an attempt to save Boeing money,” the Justice Department alleges in a fraud indictment unsealed Thursday. Two 737 Max planes killed hundreds of people in crashes in 2018 and 2019 because of faulty controls. Mark Forkner allegedly “withheld critical information from regulators” from the Federal Aviation Administration as the agency evaluated the aircraft, according to the indictment. Federal prosecutors wrote, “His callous choice to mislead the FAA hampered the agency’s ability to protect the flying public and left pilots in the lurch, lacking information about certain 737 MAX flight controls.”