Boeing texts reveal flawed simulator, not smoking gun: Ex-colleagues

Four days after leaked internal pilot messages set off a media firestorm for Boeing, former colleagues have defended a former pilot who voiced concerns about unreported 737 MAX software problems 2 years before fatal crashes. Chief technical pilot Mark Forkner described in the leaked messages how MCAS cockpit software was "running rampant" during a flight simulator session. The messages fuelled speculation that either Boeing or Forkner or both knew about problems with the plane's flight control software well before the 2 crashes. But former Boeing employees who either worked with Forkner at the time he wrote the messages or had direct knowledge of the simulator he used argued the erratic behavior he described likely referred to the software on the flight simulator he was using. <br/>