Former Boeing Executive Allegedly Concealed Aircraft Technical Issues That Led to the Deaths of 346 People, Federal Grand Jury Says

(Photo : Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP / Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)
A Boeing 737 MAX jet comes in for a landing following a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) test flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington on June 29, 2020. - US regulators conducted the first a test flight of the Boeing 737 MAX on Monday, a key step in recertifying the jet that has been grounded for more than a year following two fatal crashes. A MAX aircraft took off from Boeing Field in Seattle at 1655 GMT, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said.

A federal grand jury indicted a former Boeing executive for fraud on Thursday for allegedly concealing technical issues about the 737 Max aircraft that later caused two separate crashes that killed a total of 346 people.

The ex-chief technical pilot is the first Boeing employee that has been charged over the 737 Max aircraft's failures. Pilots struggled to regain control of the Max aircraft in October 2019 and were unable to prevent the plane from crashing into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia.

Indictment of Former Boeing Executive

Five months after the devastating crash, another MAX aircraft crashed near Addis Ababa airport located in Ethiopia six minutes after taking off. The horrific incident killed all people on board the plane and forced regulators worldwide to ground that specific type of aircraft. The two accidents recorded a total death toll of 346.

Investigators later discovered that both incidents were caused by incorrect data from a faulty sensor that caused the aircraft's MCAS to misfire. The event caused the planes to nose down by themselves repeatedly. The pilot manual did not mention the MCAS and allowed pilots to commandeer the plane without simulator training that would have cost airlines more money, ABC News reported.

The federal grand jury's indictment of the suspect, identified as 49-year-old Mark Forkner, claims that he deceived the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) while the agency was first certifying the 737 MAX aircraft. The two incidents caused by the data errors resulted in the 20-month long grounding of the aircraft and cost Boeing more than $20 billion.

Acting U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham for the Northern District of Texas said in a statement that Forkner allegedly withheld critical information from regulators in an attempt to reduce Boeing's costs. The official said that the suspect's choices misled the FAA and hampered the aviation agency's ability to protect the flying public and left pilots in a predicament.

Meacham said that the Department of Justice will never tolerate fraud, especially in industries where the risks are high. Both Forkner's attorney and Boeing did not answer requests for comments regarding the indictment, CNN reported.

Responsibility for Killing Hundreds

Nadia Milleron said that the indictment of Forkner was not enough for what the results of the crime had done to the victims and their families. Milleron is the mother of Samya Rose Stumo, a passenger who was killed in the second fatal crash of the MAX aircraft in March 2019.

The grief-stricken mother said that Forkner was just a "fall guy" and accused Boeing of being responsible for the deaths of all the people in the two separate incidents. She said that the aviation company prioritized short-term profit over general safety.

Prosecutors alleged that Forkner, who was the chief technical pilot on Boeing's MAX program, discovered a crucial change to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) flight-control system in 2016. However, due to his secrecy, the FAA deleted reference to the MCAS from a technical report, which in turn, resulted in the system not being mentioned in pilot manuals, leading to the majority of MAX pilots now knowing about the system until after the first crash, Yahoo News reported.