safetypee
To the best of my knowledge, all the Boeing Experimental Test Pilots are ARs (basically same as DER) - certainly all the pilots I knew were ARs. While FAA pilots typically fly certification tests, they don't always do so - during a busy flight test program FAA pilots are not always available, especially during remote testing and on weekends. So they'd delegate the compliance finding to the Boeing AR pilot(s). Further, as an AR, there is a responsibility to keep the regulatory authority informed of meaningful changes - and MCAS certainly qualified. Now there is another possibility - one of my biggest complaints with the delegated certification process was the roadblocks they put inhibiting direct communication between the ARs and the FAA. So it's possible that Forkner expected the Boeing cert group to inform the FAA - and someone in cert dropped the ball - but that still shouldn't stop Forkner from telling the FAA pilots about MCAS.
While