Major airlines ground planes following reports of engine parts with fake safety certificates

Reports that a company has been selling parts with fake safety certifications to jet engine manufacturers have led a number of major airlines to ground planes. 

AOG Technics has been taken to court over its alleged distribution of the unapproved parts, which have been used in numerous older-generation aircraft. 

Airlines have claimed that they are working around the clock to locate and remove the potentially unsafe parts, and that passenger safety has not been compromised.

On August 4, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency announced that it had received reports indicating that "several CFM56 engine parts distributed by AOG Technics have been supplied with a falsified Authorized Release Certificate."

The agency explained that, "in each confirmed example, the approved organisation, identified on the ARC, has attested that the form did not originate from within their organisation, and the certificate has been falsified."

An alert was issued after AOG Technics failed to provide information regarding the source of the parts in question. A total of 70 falsified ARCs involving 50 different parts were linked to the company.

The EASA urged airlines to inspect their records to determine whether they had obtained parts from AOG Technics, and to replace them as soon as possible if they had already been installed.

As Simple Flying reports, the parts were used in the CFM56 high bypass turbofan engine, which can be found in Airbus A320ceo, Airbus A319ceo, A318ceo, A321ceo, Boeing 737NG, and Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft.

Over the following weeks, a number of airlines announced that they would be heeding the EASA's advice and grounding planes until proper inspections could be made. Among those impacted were Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, and American Airlines. 

The engines were manufactured by General Electric Aerospace in collaboration with French company Safran for their joint venture, CFM International. In their ensuing lawsuit against AOG Technics head Jose Zamora Yrala, they argued the company "put aircraft safety in jeopardy and renders it impossible for operators who have purchased these parts to verify the airworthiness of their engines."

As Aviation Week reports, AOG Technics was established in 2015, and operated virtually, with no physical headquarters. It has been accused of engaging in shady business practices, and has reportedly never received authorization to sell parts.

The London High Court recently ordered AOG Technics to turn over documents related to the acquisition and sale of the parts in question.

"We applaud the court’s ruling compelling AOG Technics to release documentation that will aid the industry in more rapidly identifying parts sold with fraudulent documentation so they can be promptly addressed," CFM said in a statement.

"Safety is our first priority, and we are taking aggressive legal action against AOG Technics for selling unapproved aircraft engine parts with falsified airworthiness documentation. We remain united with the aviation community in working to keep unapproved parts out of the global supply chain."