Escalating scandal grips airlines including American and Southwest, wreaking havoc on flight delays and cancellations

Sept. 26, 2023
The parts scandal comes as the latest development in a series of difficulties that have embroiled the airline industry, Paolo Confino reports for Fortune.

WASHINGTON - About 100 planes around the world have been caught up in a scandal that would be cartoonish if it weren’t so terrifying. It saw a dubious company, with fake employees and an address that was a glorified PO box, sell and distribute fake airplane parts that ended up in planes belonging to some of the world’s biggest airlines. On Thursday night, American Airlines became the fourth, and so far final, airline to have found parts from AOG Technics in its aircraft. Southwest kicked off the disclosures from various airlines around the world in early September, when it became the first to announce it had located an unregistered part from AOG Technics, Paolo Confino reports for FortuneContinue reading original article.

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

26 September 2023 - Last week, CFM International in Cincinnati reported that "thousands" of engine components may have been sold with forged paperwork by AOG Technics in London. This comes following a report earlier this month regarding the same concern.

Matthew Reeve, a lawyer for CFM and its co-owners General Electric and Safran, said AOG Technics had engaged in a "deliberate, dishonest and sophisticated scheme to deceive the market with falsified documents on an industrial scale".

A probe into the accused forged parts is ongoing. Reuters reports that 96 of the some 23,000 CFM56 engines in service have been affected.

Related: Airlines are racing to find fake parts in Airbus and Boeing engines

Related: Getting aircraft on ground flying again

Related: Artemis Aerospace looks at technical faults that can ground an aircraft

Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics

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