In this photo taken on Sept 30, 2020, a Boeing 737 MAX airliner piloted by Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Steve Dickson lands following an evaluation flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington. Boeing said on April 9, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)

NEW YORK－A federal grand jury in the United States on Thursday charged a former Boeing chief test pilot with misleading aviation regulators during the certification process for the 737 Max, which was involved in two fatal crashes.

Mark Forkner, 49, was the main contact between the aviation giant and the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, over how pilots should be trained to fly the planes.

According to court documents, Mark Forkner had discovered information in 2016 about a major change made to the MCAS that was supposed to prevent stalling, but deliberately chose not to share the details with the FAA

Forkner "provided the agency with materially false, inaccurate and incomplete information about a new part of the flight controls for the Boeing 737 MAX" flight handling system, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, said the US Justice Department in a statement.

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The MCAS, which is blamed for the crashes in 2018 and 2019, was supposed to prevent the plane from going into a dive, but instead malfunctioned.

According to court documents, Forkner had discovered information in 2016 about a major change made to the MCAS that was supposed to prevent stalling, but deliberately chose not to share the details with the FAA.

As a result, the FAA did not include a reference to the MCAS in training manuals for pilots.

Boeing has acknowledged its responsibility in misleading regulators and agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to settle lawsuits. The aviation giant has also admitted that two of its employees misled the FAA.

Forkner is the first individual to be prosecuted in this case.

Forkner bragged to his colleague that he had lied to the regulator. According to documents published early last year, he also boasted that he could deceive his FAA contacts to obtain certification for the MCAS.

High stakes

The 737 Max was formally certified in March 2017 and made its first commercial flight a few weeks later.

But in October 2018, a Lion Air plane crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board. In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashed, killing 157.

The MCAS in both cases had run amok based on faulty information transmitted by one of the sensors.

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It was not until after the first crash in October 2018 that the FAA learned key details about the MCAS.

All 737 Max planes were then grounded worldwide for 20 months. The plane was allowed to fly again at the end of last year.

Forkner was formally indicted on Thursday by a grand jury in Texas on two counts of fraud involving aircraft parts and four counts of wire fraud.

If convicted, he could face up to 100 years in prison.

Agencies via Xinhua