FORT WORTH, Texas—A Texas jury found a former Boeing Co. pilot not guilty of deceiving his counterpart at the Federal Aviation Administration about a 737 MAX flight-control system later blamed for two fatal crashes.
The jury found Mark Forkner not guilty on all four counts of wire fraud in what prosecutors described as a scheme to enrich Boeing by defrauding American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. of tens of millions of dollars. Each count carried a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Mr. Forkner was accused of misleading the FAA about the flight-control system known as MCAS to reduce how much training pilots would need to fly it, thus making the jet more attractive to airlines.
