A Dark Side of the Aviation Industry

A Dark Side of the Aviation Industry

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Firstly, a very big thank you to everyone who read and responded to my recent post, following the ISTAT EMEA conference in London earlier this month. ??

Now for something completely different and, regrettably, much darker for the whole of the aviation industry. ?

Many of you will know that AOG Technics has been accused of mass producing fake certification for engine parts. Hundreds of engines are said to be affected. The industry breaths in deeply, participants pray that they have not bought, leased, operated or sold any of the affected engines or, even worse, innocently installed those parts.

?Sadly, based on my fairly recent experience, this is not a once in a blue moon incident. Over the past 18 months I have witnessed three other fake certification incidents involving operational aircraft and engines (not just engine parts).

The aircraft incident involved a past operator producing false certification for maintenance work, including the performance of Airworthiness Directives. When picked up, the current operator, had to bear the cost of actually performing all the subject work for which documentation had been fabricated.

The first engine incident involved the production of a complete documentation pack for a Performance Restoration which, as it transpired, never took place.? The documentation was a professionally produced copy, with date and other changes, of the engine’s previous Performance Restoration, performed some six years earlier.? It was only a chance telecon between a colleague and his contact, at the engine shop, which led to the discovery of this fraudulent act.

These first two examples of fake certification were clearly evidence of intended, deliberate and professional fraud, which could have had serious consequences.? The third example, whilst still fraudulent, could not really be described as professional. It was related to another engine.

?The engine was being purchased and, as is normal, the maintenance records were being audited. The engine went for pre-delivery maintenance work; everything went fine and we moved on to delivery statements.

One of the delivery statements to be provided, by the seller of the engine, was a Non-Incident Statement from the previous operator(s).?? An NIS from past operators of an aircraft or an engine is a standard part of a Buyer’s delivery statement requirement.

In the case of this engine, two of the NIS provided, were from two different airlines based in two different continents.? Apart from a few spelling mistakes, the wording of each NIS was fairly standard for the industry.? However, it was noticed that the wording of the two statements, including, importantly, the spelling mistakes, were identical. This warranted further investigation.

It transpired that one of the previous operators had ceased business prior to the date of the NIS and in the case of the other operator, we could find no evidence that it had ever operated the aircraft type on which the engine could have been installed.

We concluded that both NIS were fabricated and the purchase was called off.

So, going back to the AOG Technics accusation.? If true, then probably the most unique part is the scale of the fabrication rather than the fact that it happened.

There is a dark side to most industries, including Aviation.

Beware and be sure! ?

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