Did he design the software and the hardware to trick the pilots? No because each airline/plane contractor engineer makes only small parts of the final product. FAA makes specifications so that no one can really tell that the electronics are wrong.
The government does not make the software, a contractor does!!! Everything is done by contractors, the government makes two things, jack and shit. I guess you have never worked in a government office before or met a government employee.
I'll let you in on something, there are four reasons why a person will take a civilian job in the government.
1. They will hire you out of college for a well paid internship and give you good training so later you can go to private industry and make loads of money.
2. The Benefits are far greater than private industry, though the pay may be lower.
3. They know that government employees don't have to do anything except making sure that damned contractor down the hall is doing their job, and the delivery dates will be met.
4. Job security, once your in, it literally takes an act of congress to get rid of you.
Hence why government employees are the laziest workforce on the planet. Everybody is all but guaranteed the same raise every year, therefore there is no reason to bust your ass for your boss, it won't get you anywhere any faster.
In conclusion, in order for software to be designed to fake flightpath and distances not only on a single plane, but to make sure these fake readings don't cause
midair collisions with other planes and miscalculations of how much fuel to put in the plane (how can that be faked!? they know exactly how much extra fuel they need for the distance they are traveling), the government would still have to let contracting engineers that design the software and the electronics in on the conspiracy because THEY are the ones designing these things, not the government.
Government merely provides the requirements. For example when Lockeed was contracted for the F-22 raptor. There was a government requirement for supercruise (being able to go supersonic without the use of afterburners), and certain stealth requirements, as well as cost requirements (each fighter must cost less than x), sensor requirements (detect enemies at x range, etc). They did not tell Lockeed what material to make the plan from, or exactly what its wingspan should be (though they may say, no bigger than x). They also do not mitigate which engineers/programmers at Lockeed gets to work on which part.
They do not provide code to be used for the software. They may ask for certain modifications of the software if something does not meet the requirements (or if there is a change in requirements). Again, this would require the engineer to be informed of the requested change and they will probably start asking questions (to themselves or others) if they are told to have software give false readings! We are talking thousands maybe millions of engineers AROUND THE WORLD that would have to be in some way aware of the conspiracy.
The top execs of any company or government agency are not qualified to engineer or design these devices, they need engineers and programmers, rocket scientists etc. They are also not qualified to even understand how they could split the project up in a way that each person only works on a small part. Not even a project manager would know that, especially in the government.
Break down the task as far as you want, somewhere somehow somebody is going to see that what they are coding is doing something different than what the product advertises it is supposed to do. Most engineers are smart enough to figure that out, especially since it is their profession.