In the messages, the pilot, Mark Forkner, who played a central role in the development of the plane, complained that the system, known as MCAS, was acting unpredictably in a flight simulator: “It’s running rampant.”
In the messages, he said that during tests in 2016, the simulator showed the plane making unexpected movements. “The plane is trimming itself like craxy,” he wrote to Patrik Gustavsson, a fellow 737 technical pilot at Boeing. “I’m like WHAT?” Mr. Forkner went on to say that he had lied to the F.A.A. “I basically lied to the regulators,” Mr. Forkner says in the messages, though it was not clear what he was specifically referring to. The F.A.A. administrator, Stephen Dickson, sent Mr. Muilenburg a letter Friday morning demanding that the company account for why it had not provided the messages to the agency earlier. “I expect your explanation immediately regarding the content of this document and Boeing’s delay in disclosing the document to its safety regulator,” Mr. Dickson wrote. Eight months before the messages were exchanged, Mr. Forkner had asked the F.A.A. if it would be O.K. to remove mention of MCAS from the pilot’s manual. The F.A.A., which at the time believed the system would activate only in rare cases and wasn’t dangerous, approved Mr. Forkner’s request.
但于此同时，波音公司向FAA隐瞒了相关信息。甚至还向FAA提出，在飞行员培训手册中删除所有MCAS字样，以避免航空公司多心。
FAA批准了这一请求
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/business/boeing-flight-simulator-text-message.html
In the messages, the pilot, Mark Forkner, who played a central role in the development of the plane, complained that the system, known as MCAS, was acting unpredictably in a flight simulator: “It’s running rampant.”
In the messages, he said that during tests in 2016, the simulator showed the plane making unexpected movements. “The plane is trimming itself like craxy,” he wrote to Patrik Gustavsson, a fellow 737 technical pilot at Boeing. “I’m like WHAT?” Mr. Forkner went on to say that he had lied to the F.A.A. “I basically lied to the regulators,” Mr. Forkner says in the messages, though it was not clear what he was specifically referring to.
The F.A.A. administrator, Stephen Dickson, sent Mr. Muilenburg a letter Friday morning demanding that the company account for why it had not provided the messages to the agency earlier. “I expect your explanation immediately regarding the content of this document and Boeing’s delay in disclosing the document to its safety regulator,” Mr. Dickson wrote.
Eight months before the messages were exchanged, Mr. Forkner had asked the F.A.A. if it would be O.K. to remove mention of MCAS from the pilot’s manual. The F.A.A., which at the time believed the system would activate only in rare cases and wasn’t dangerous, approved Mr. Forkner’s request.