Ex-Boeing pilot from Keller accused of lying to safety regulators during 737 MAX jets investigation

A former Boeing worker and Southwest Airlines pilot from Keller was in federal court in Tarrant County.

FORT WORTH, Texas - A former Boeing worker and Southwest Airlines pilot from Keller was in federal court in Tarrant County. He faces charges for allegedly deceiving safety regulators about the 737 MAX jet.

After turning himself in and a brief court hearing, former Boeing chief technical pilot Mark Forkner of Keller, his wife and attorneys left federal court in Fort Worth. He was released pending trial.

Forkner faces six counts of fraud in the first criminal case to result from the FAA investigation of Boeing 737 MAX jets. Two of them crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.

Forkner’s attorney, David Gerger insinuated the former Boeing pilot is being used as a scapegoat.

The federal indictment says Forkner knowingly deceived air-safety regulators about the aircraft’s flight control system, called MCAS, that was linked to the deadly crashes.

The complaint alleges Forkner himself discovered a concern about the system’s behavior at slower speeds during a flight simulation. It was something that if publicized would require costly training for pilots or deal a huge financial blow to Boeing. And so, according to the complaint, he withheld that information.

The documents refer to emails between Forkner and another Boeing employee.

Forkner wrote, "Oh shocker alert! MCAS is now active down to .2. It’s running rampant on me in the sim at least that's what [Boeing simulator engineer] thinks is happening."

The Boeing employee wrote, "Oh great that means we have to update the speed trim description in volume 2."

Forkner replied, "So I basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly)."

The Boeing employee said, "It wasn't a lie, no one told us that was the case."

The indictment also included, "Despite knowing that MCAS could now operate at low speed and was no longer limited to high speed and wind-up turns and speeds of Mach .07-.08, Forkner withheld this material fact from the FAA AEG."

The judge set the jury trial in the matter for Nov. 15.