Fort Worth Jury Issues Defense Verdict in FAA Fraud Trial
A former chief technical pilot for Boeing was indicted for allegedly misleading the FAA about the 737 MAX's flight control system. The pilot was accused of withholding information about a system called MCAS, which was later linked to two fatal crashes. The case went to trial, and the jury acquitted the pilot of fraud charges.
Case Information Updated: October 2025
Case Outcome
- Outcome
- Verdict-Defense
- Amount
- Undisclosed
- County
- Dallas County, TX
- Resolved
- 2022
Injury & Accident Details
- Injury Type
- Other
- Accident Type
- Other
- Case Type
- Motor Vehicle Accident
Case Overview
In October 2021, the U.S. government filed an indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against the former Boeing 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot. The indictment alleged the defendant misled the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during the 737 MAX certification process by providing false and incomplete information about the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Prosecutors claimed this led to MCAS's omission from FAA reports and pilot training materials, leaving U.S.-based airlines uninformed. The government contended the defendant withheld information in November 2016 after discovering significant MCAS changes, a system whose role became central after the 2018 Lion Air and 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crashes, which led to the grounding of 737 MAX planes.
The defendant was charged with multiple counts of fraud, including wire fraud. In February 2022, a U.S. District Judge dismissed two of these counts. The judge agreed with the defense's argument that MCAS did not qualify as an "aircraft part" under the criminal statute for those charges.
On March 23, 2022, after approximately 90 minutes of deliberations, a federal jury in Fort Worth, Texas, acquitted the former Boeing 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot of four counts of wire fraud.
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