{"id":9186,"date":"2023-10-12T05:52:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T05:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=9186"},"modified":"2023-10-12T05:57:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T05:57:31","slug":"ghost-in-the-machine-how-fake-parts-infiltrated-airline-fleets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=9186","title":{"rendered":"Ghost in the Machine: How Fake Parts Infiltrated Airline Fleets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aviation news international – A little-known distributor in London sold thousands of engine components with bogus documentation. Carriers and repair shops are frantically hunting them down.<\/p>\n

This spring, engineers at TAP Air Portugal\u2019s maintenance subsidiary huddled around an aircraft engine that had come in for repair. The exposed CFM56 turbine looked like just another routine job for a shop that handles more than 100 engines a year. Only this time, there was cause for alarm.<\/p>\n

Workers noticed that a replacement part, a damper to reduce vibration, showed signs of wear, when the accompanying paperwork identified the component as fresh from the production line. On June 21, TAP pointed out the discrepancy to\u00a0Safran SA<\/a>, the French aerospace company that makes CFM engines together with\u00a0General Electric Co.<\/a><\/p>\n

Safran quickly determined that the paperwork had been forged. The signature wasn\u2019t that of a company employee, and the reference and purchase order numbers on the part also didn\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n

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TAP Portugal aircraft maintenance hangar at Lisbon International (Portela) airport.<\/span>Photographer: Thomas Meyer\/Bloomberg<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

To date,\u00a0Safran and GE have uncovered<\/a>\u00a0more than 90 other certificates that had similarly been falsified, all linked to the same parts distributor in London: AOG Technics Ltd., a little-known outfit started eight years ago by a young entrepreneur named Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala.<\/p>\n

While engineers are trained to spot components of dubious origin, \u201cit\u2019s always shocking when we have one in front of our eyes,\u201d said a person familiar with the revelation, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations.<\/p>\n

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The discovery by an alert crew in Lisbon blew the cover off a massive aviation fraud that has left engine makers and their customers in a frantic race to stem the fallout. As a result of the fabrications, thousands of parts with improper documentation have wound up at airlines, distributors and workshops around the globe. From there, they\u2019ve ended up inside jet engines, effectively contaminating a growing portion of the world\u2019s most widely flown airliner fleet.<\/p>\n

This story is based on legal and corporate\u00a0filings<\/a>, regulatory disclosures and social-media accounts, as well as information obtained from industry executives and people familiar with Zamora\u2019s career, who asked not to be identified given the sensitive nature of the relationships.<\/p>\n

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Bogus Parts in the World\u2019s Most Widely Flown Engine<\/h3>\n

Exposed to extreme temperatures, some parts are spinning at more than 10,000 rpm<\/p>\n