Ex-737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted

The former Chief Technical Pilot for Boeing’s 737 MAX project ($BA@US), Mark Forkner was indicted by a Texas grand jury on Thursday on 6 counts of attempting to defraud U.S.-based airline customers. The indictment says that Forkner provided the FAA with “materially false, inaccurate, and incomplete information” about the flight controls on the plane, including a new part called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or M-CAS. The M-CAS was tied to two fatal crashes killing 346 people in just 5 months, resulting in the plane’s grounding for 19 months. As U.S. Attorney for Northern Texas, Chad Meacham said, “His callous choice to mislead the FAA hampered the agency’s ability to protect the flying public…” Boeing stock fell nearly 2 percent in early trading.