Posted on 09/22/2023 3:12:02 PM PDT by DFG
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.
American Airlines “identified the uncertified components on a small number of aircraft,” according to an emailed statement to Fortune, while Southwest told Fortune it had identified one engine that contained two parts from AOG Technics.
The parts scandal comes as the latest development in a series of difficulties that have embroiled the airline industry. It has had two consecutive summers plagued with seemingly constant flight delays and cancellations as “revenge travel” grips a worldwide public eager to get out after a pandemic-era hibernation. American Airlines and United both had to navigate the high-wire act of negotiating new pilots union contracts—and both did so successfully. But the prospect of faulty parts, albeit affecting a small fraction of the world’s fleet of roughly 25,500 commercial aircraft, is swiftly piling up delays. Regulators, airlines, and parts suppliers around the world are scrambling to track down possible bogus parts as the AOG Technics scandal spreads from the U.S. all the way to Australia.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Three paragraphs and not one word about WHAT PART(S). More drag it out sensationalized writing. Not going there.
Yeah track down the parts, but who were the idiots buying, who were the scamsters sellign nd do we need to nuke China for sabotage of the world's commercial airline service? Those are the critical questions.
There was a typo in the article—the parts were from AOC....
;-)
For those with reading comprehension issues....
What airlines have found fake parts?
Southwest Airlines was the first major airline to disclose that it had found uncertified parts that originated from AOG Technics in its aircraft. It first became aware of the problem in August “and took necessary steps to ensure we do not have any parts in our fleet from AOG,” the company said. After Southwest’s suppliers conducted a review of its parts the company removed two low pressure turbine blades from one of its jets.
Earlier this week, United became the third airline to disclose it had identified AOG Technics’ bogus parts in its airplanes. Two United jets were found to have had unregistered parts in their engines, the company said. Both planes are undergoing the requisite maintenance to replace the part before being used again. United will “continue to investigate as new information becomes available from our suppliers,” the company said. American Airlines said it would “continue working” with suppliers and the FAA “to ensure these parts are no longer in our supply or otherwise in use on our aircraft.”
Journalism is pretty much dead. What’s with whole sentences as titles? Why no substance?
I’ve worked supplier quality in med device for about 20 yrs.
I’m positive that these airlines didn’t follow proper FAA and qualify procedure requirements to qualify suppliers and parts.
sigh....’quality’ procedures not qualify.....long week....time for a drink...
I think their question was what parts,, not what airlines.
What better way to get people to stop flying (cuz “climate change, doncha know 😉). Scare the crap out of the “dregs” with faulty parts instead of tranny flight attendants!
Is the Secretary of Transportation on this, or is he doing Drag Queen Shows or maybe he is still nursing the baby.
From my post (upthread) ...
After Southwest's suppliers conducted a review of its parts the company removed two low pressure turbine blades from one of its jets.
There are large aircraft parts reclaimers located in the U
SA who operate under shell corporate names for liability purposes. They buy damaged or crashed aircraft or runout aircraft parts and sell them as operational. Some of these parts are from foreign countries without logbooks and no known history.
a
I will add my experience. This has been going on for decades. My first job in aviation 40 years ago…..in a nutshell, a commercial airline facility ( C checks overhaul, B727 , B737 aircraft), would have to replace primary flt controls, fuel controls , etc…, they commonly scrapped assemblies, or rebuild them in back shops- then per FAA issue out 8130 servicable tags, tightly monitored, records must be kept for years…well two inspectors would red tag, scrap parts, they went supposedly to the junk yards…they somehow got ahold of them, issued new 8130’s , then resold them on the part’s market. The buyers ( airlines) would by these “ serviceable “ parts and install them.
All legal, until Southwest bought an L1 door, ( $250,000 back then), traced the 8130 tag and found out the door had been scrapped two years ago ( by serial number/ part number). The inspectors had started a “ repair company” on paper, were buying up scrapped parts and issuing out bogus 8130’s. Bam! They were caught, got five years in prison.
Another incident, a major airline was buying AN/ MS fittings, hoses from a major parts supplier. The packaging was marked correctly, but the packing was cheap. One day MS bolts were breaking, stripping, an analysis of the metal showed it was common steel, low grade metalurgically….the supplier traced the bolts to a Chinese manufacturing company.
Because it’s the gaslight media. They aren’t chartered to inform. Much the opposite.
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What this says most to me is the airlines did not do sufficient due diligence of their own on this parts supplier. That to me is the real scandal, because their were obvious holes in the company’s bonifieds for some time, which airline companies doing sufficient due diligence would have discovered. No one had to wait till bad parts arrived to find that out. Ah, but then again not all airlines do their own maintenance today, and if they don’t someone else is in charge of securing the right aircraft parts.
I’m wondering if some of these make-believe parts were part (parton the pun) of some underhanded way to cheat the government in giving the airlines more covid subsidies.
Lol!
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