US judge dismisses two charges against former Boeing 737 MAX technical pilot

A US judge on Tuesday dismissed two charges against a former chief technical pilot for Boeing accused of deceiving federal regulators evaluating the company's 737 MAX jet, but rejected a request to dismiss the other four counts. US District Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas granted part of the request of lawyers for former Boeing technical pilot Mark Forkner, dismissing two fraud counts alleging Forkner made materially false communications concerning a key airplane software feature called Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). MCAS is a software feature designed to automatically push the airplane's nose down in certain conditions. It was tied to the two 737 MAX crashes over a five-month period in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. O'Connor ruled Tuesday the two charges could not proceed because they must involve a tangible airplane part -- rather than the MCAS software feature. "MCAS is intangible computer code in the aircraft’s flight control software," O'Connor wrote. "MCAS is not an 'aircraft part.'" O'Connor rejected a request to dismiss the other four counts which allege wire fraud. <br/>