Bombay Durpun - Former Boeing pilot on trial over 737 MAX

In the wake of two fatal crashes of the MAX that killed 346 people, US authorities indicted Mark Forkner in November, and so far he is the only individual facing prosecution in the case.

Judge Reed O'Connor was due to open proceedings in a Fort Worth, Texas court at 1800 GMT, starting with jury selection and opening statements, according to court documents. The first witnesses are expected to testify Monday.

A spokeswoman for the local prosecutor's office confirmed the trial was to begin on Friday.

Boeing has acknowledged responsibility for misleading the authorities about the MAX, and agreed in January 2021 to pay more than $2.5 billion to settle lawsuits related to the crash of a Lion Air flight in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019.

The aviation giant said two of its employees misled the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

According to prosecution documents, Forkner in 2016 discovered a major change made to the MAX flight control software known as MCAS, which was implicated in both crashes.

In a message to a colleague revealed in 2019, he indicated that the software made the plane difficult to fly in a simulator, the documents show.

But prosecutors say he failed to share all the information with the FAA, which did not require additional pilot training on the MAX.

Forkner's defense team said he is being made a scapegoat in the investigation.

The judge last month dismissed two of the six original charges against the pilot.

Forkner remains accused of having sought to mislead Boeing customers American Airlines and Southwest Airlines by not providing them with all the relevant information when they finalized their orders for the aircraft, in particular on the need for training, in a bid to protect the manufacturer from losing money.

Boeing declined to comment on Friday.

Forkner's lawyers and the prosecutors in the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.

F.Varghese--BD