BoeingFederal grand juries indicted a pilot who tested the 737 Max jetliner Thursday on the charges of lying to safety regulators while they were evaluating it. The plane was then involved in two fatal crashes.

Mark A. Forkner is accused of lying to the Federal Aviation Administration regarding an automated flight-control program that contributed to 346 fatalities.

Prosecutors claimed that Forkner “implied deception” meant the system wasn’t mentioned in important FAA documents or manuals for pilots, nor was it included in pilot-training materials supplied to airlines.

Max-jets that were involved in crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 experienced their noses automatically being pushed downwards by the flight control system. Both planes took off in a few minutes and went into nosedives. The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System was not known to most pilots until the crash.

Forkner (49) was indicted on four wire fraud and two frauds involving parts of aircraft in interstate commerce. Federal prosecutors stated that Forkner will make his first appearance before a Fort Worth courthouse on Friday. A sentence of as much as 100 years could apply if he’s convicted.