By Brian Lupo Oct. 6, 2023
From The Gateway Pundit
There are few industries in which “excessive regulation” should be considered a good thing: a hunk of thin aluminum flying at 35,000ft at 550mph with 200-300 other people is perhaps one of those industries.
This is why there is strict regulations from the FAA in the US, the EASA in Europe, etc. Yesterday, however, it was reported by OANN that four major US airlines have now acknowledged that they were sold, and installed, unapproved jet engine parts with fake safety certificates.
Delta, American, United and Southwest Airlines have discovered that unapproved jet engine parts with fake safety certificates have been installed inside their planes.
The airline companies and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency have claimed that AOG Technics, a leading global aircraft support provider to the air transport industry, sold them the fake parts. The airlines stated that AOG Technics falsified the required airworthiness documents for the spare parts and mass-produced artificial safety certificates in order to sell its engine parts to them.
Parts sold by the problematic company have been found in 126 engines across the airlines and several questions have been raised over the effectiveness of the aviation industry’s safety oversight measures.
The potentially faulty parts stretch from minor screws and bolts to essentially important turbine blades in the planes. The most impacted engine model was discovered to be a CFM56, which is known to carry the record for the most engines ever sold to airlines at over 33,900.
The London-based company AOG Technics has also been accused of creating fake Linked-In profiles and creating a virtual office in London. The Linked-In profile reportedly identified their “chief commercial officer” as a man named Ray Kwong. The profile showed he previously worked at Mitsubishi and Nissan, although neither had confirmed he worked there, and the profile photo was a stock photo that appeared on many other websites, according to NationalWorld.
AOG Technics was given 14 days to produce details on these allegedly falsified safety reports and the parts involved, according to a London High Court ruling from September 20th.
China was also impacted by the falsified certificates according to AviationWeek.com:
In one case, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) turned over one of its AAC-038 approval tags, later confirmed as fake, that came with 32 overhauled CFM56 high pressure compressor (HPC) stage 1 vanes. Two fake FAA 8130-3s covering hundreds of GE CF6 parts were found, the summary said. More than 80 EASA Form 1s representing thousands of CFM56 parts, including turbine blades and seals, have been flagged and confirmed as forgeries.
In addition to the above-mentioned airlines, TAP and Virgin Australia Airlines have also said they were affected by this scandal.
In a statement, the FAA said they are “…investigating the issue and is coordinating closely with the EASA and UK Civil Aviation Authority. The FAA takes suspected unapproved parts cases very seriously and takes action as necessary for safety.”
