Pilot charged with fraud

[2R]

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... 021-10-14/

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A former chief technical pilot for Boeing Co (BA.N) was charged on Thursday with deceiving federal regulators concerning the evaluation of the company's 737 MAX plane in order to save the U.S. planemaker money, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Mark Forkner, 49, was indicted for scheming to defraud Boeing's U.S.-based airline customers to obtain tens of millions of dollars for Boeing.

Boeing and a lawyer for Forkner did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The indictment said Forkner provided the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with "materially false, inaccurate, and incomplete information" about a new part of the flight controls for the Boeing 737 MAX, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).

[PilotDAR]

This is the thin edge of the wedge. How the pilot conducted himself relative to a demonstration of compliance is certainly open to investigation. Some other people acting on behalf of the FAA to find design compliance must be worried for themselves now too!

[photofly]

So a middle-ranking pilot took it upon himself to save his employer $400M on his own initiative? That's Forkner spelt SIERRA CHARLIE ALPHA PAPA ECHO GOLF OSCAR ALPHA TANGO.

[AirFrame]

So a middle-ranking pilot took it upon himself to save his employer $400M on his own initiative?

Not without pocketing a tidy bonus for his efforts. I share your opinion. It was inevitable that there would be a scapegoat somewhere in all of this.