Pilot’s 2016 early warning on 737 MAX

A high-ranking Boeing pilot complained about a faulty safety alert making the 737 MAX difficult to fly more than two years before crashes involving the same issue killed 346 people, a report claimed Friday.

The pilot said the anti-stall system was making it difficult to control the plane in a flight simulator — telling a colleague in 2016, “Granted, I suck at flying, but even this was egregious,” The New York Times reported Friday.

“It’s running rampant in the sim,” pilot Mark Forkner said, referring to the simulator.

The 737 MAX was grounded after crashes in Indonesia in October 2018 and Ethiopia in March when the MCAS system malfunctioned. The planes went into nose dives, killing a total of 346 people.

Boeing acknowledged in May that it became aware the safety alert was not working correctly several months after the MAX had already been in flight.

Boeing handed over the internal messages between the two employees to lawmakers in Congress who are conducting a criminal investigation, according to the Times report.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed Boeing only disclosed the messages to it on Thursday after it had discovered them “some months ago” — suggesting the airplane maker misled the government body.

Boeing turned over instant messages from 2016 between two employees that suggest the airplane maker may have misled the Federal Aviation Administration about a key safety system on the grounded 737 Max, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The messages prompted FAA Administrator Steve Dickson to demand an “immediate” explanation from Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg for the delay in turning over the documents the company said it had found “some months ago.”

The messages deepened the crisis for the world’s largest airplane maker days before Muilenburg, who last Friday was stripped of his chairman title by the board, is due to testify before the Congress on the development of the 737 Max.

The aircraft has been grounded worldwide since March following two fatal plane crashes within five months attributed to software problems.

The FAA said it found the messages “concerning” and “is reviewing this information to determine what action is appropriate.”

The Boeing internal messages raised questions about the performance of the so-called MCAS anti-stall system that has been tied to the two fatal crashes, one in Indonesia and another in Ethiopia.