A U.S. federal grand jury sued Faulkner, a former senior Boeing pilot, on October 14 local time, accusing him and the company of making false statements about its problematic 737 Max jet.
The US Department of Justice said in a statement that Faulkner was accused of defrauding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and "conspiring to defraud Boeing's American Airlines customers to obtain tens of millions of dollars for Boeing."
Prosecutors believe that Faulkner provided aviation agencies with “significantly false, inaccurate, and incomplete information” about flight control software. This information is related to two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. In the crash, 346 people died.
Faulkner will be the first person to face criminal charges related to the 737 Max issue.
If the six charges against which he has been indicted are established, he will face up to several decades in prison.
(Producing Sui Zhiyuan)
Editor in charge: 【Luo Pan】