A federal judge dismissed part of the criminal case against a former
Boeing Co.
pilot accused of misleading air-safety regulators about faulty software that played a significant role in two deadly 737 MAX crashes.
U.S. District Judge
Reed O’Connor
on Tuesday found that part of the indictment against Mark Forkner, who has left Boeing, was flawed because prosecutors charged him with fraud involving aircraft parts. Prosecutors alleged Mr. Forkner’s efforts to mislead the regulators had the effect of defrauding Boeing’s airline customers. The flight-control system that Mr. Forkner was accused of deceiving regulators about, known as MCAS, isn’t an aircraft part according to the law, Judge O’Connor wrote.
“The difficulty is that MCAS is…
