BA Boeing Co

By Andrew Tangel, Andy Pasztor and Doug Cameron 

A senior Boeing Co. pilot told a colleague he unintentionally misled federal regulators about a key system on the plane maker's 737 MAX, according to a transcript of instant messages reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

In the exchange, from 2016, Mark Forkner, then Boeing's chief technical pilot for the MAX, and a colleague named Patrik Gustavsson appeared to be discussing the plane maker's modification of a flight-control system known as MCAS so that it worked in low-speed situations, with increased power. The messages also appear to touch on problems with a flight simulator.

"So I basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly)," Mr. Forkner wrote, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration, which at the time was in the process of certifying the 737 MAX as safe.

Mr. Gustavsson replied: "it wasnt a lie, no one told us that was the case."

David Gerger, an attorney for Mr. Forkner, said: "If you read the whole chat, it is obvious that there was no 'lie' and the simulator program was not operating properly. Based on what he was told, Mark thought the plane was safe, and the simulator would be fixed."

Mr. Forkner left Boeing in 2018 and now works at Southwest Airlines Co. Mr. Gustavsson is still at the company. He succeeded Mr. Forkner in his old role.

The MCAS system has been implicated in the two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which together claimed 346 lives.

The messages highlight issues pertaining to Boeing's goal for smooth approval of the MAX -- as well as what pilots were told about MCAS -- both topics that congressional investigators and federal prosecutors are particularly focused on, according to people familiar with the probes.

The pilots appeared to discuss Mr. Forkner's role in Boeing's removal of references to MCAS from some manuals. After describing the feature "running rampant" in the flight simulator, Mr. Forkner wrote: "Oh great, that means we have to update the speed trim description" in those documents.

Investigators have been looking into whether such an update could have alerted FAA officials about the power of MCAS, or possibly prompted the agency to mandate additional simulator training for pilots on the new model. Boeing and airlines that bought the MAX, especially the largest customer Southwest Airlines Co., were determined to persuade the FAA that additional simulator training wasn't required because MCAS was simply an offshoot of the longstanding speed trim system previously approved by regulators.

At the end of the exchange, where the aviators complain that Boeing test pilots failed to alert them about the issues, Mr. Forkner responded: "They're all so damn busy, and getting pressure from the program."

The U.S. Department of Justice, working in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Transportation Department's inspector general's office, is investigating how the 737 MAX aircraft was developed and certified, according to people familiar with the matter.

Boeing turned over the instant messages to the Justice Department in February after discovering them, and then to the Transportation Department's general counsel Thursday night, before handing over the same information to congressional committees investigating the MAX, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Justice Department was informed Boeing would hand over the information to other agencies, this person added.

"We will continue to follow the direction of the FAA and other global regulators, as we work to safely return the 737 MAX to service," a Boeing spokesman said.

U.S. aviation regulators on Friday described the messages between the two Boeing employees as "concerning" and that they were brought to their attention Thursday, even though the aerospace giant had discovered them "some months ago."

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a letter to Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg on Friday that he expected an immediate explanation of the contents and delay in disclosure, according to the agency.

A Boeing spokesman said the company timely produced Mr. Forkner's IM documents to the appropriate authorities.

The rebuke by the FAA comes as the agency and other regulators prepare to reassess the MAX following software and training changes implemented in the wake of two fatal crashes that have grounded the global fleet for more than seven months.

Boeing shares were recently down about 5%.

At Boeing, there was concern that turning over the documents to the Transportation Department and the FAA would be inappropriate since those agencies are subject to the criminal investigation that is focused as well on Boeing, said the person familiar with the matter.

The FAA said on Friday that it had shared the document with Congress, with Mr. Muilenburg due to testify before a House committee on the MAX on Oct. 30. The agency said it planned to provide additional documents to lawmakers later Friday.

In preparation for the hearing at the end of the month, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has collected hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from Boeing. Many of those documents deal with the FAA's certification of the 737 MAX but none of them have been made public so far. Committee staffers have been negotiating with Boeing's lawyers about making some of the documents public at the hearing, according to people familiar with the matter. No final agreement has been reached.

Write to Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com, Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com and Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 18, 2019 15:35 ET (19:35 GMT)

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