UK Criminal Investigation and Russian plane inventory= need for greater unairworthiness detection skills
Unfortunately, unairworthy parts are not visible to the eye as the above AI generated image depicts. Below are two articles which are clarion warnings of the pervasive and insidious nature of Suspected Unapproved Parts (SUPs). The FAA and several other reports have noted the volume and sophisticated level of deception of this influx. There are a number of articles in which sophisticated airlines have found these unairworthy parts on the wing and in inventory.
UK’s Serious Fraud Office and the National Crime Agency have initiated investigations to determine what laws AOG Technics may have violated. The company, apparently little more than an empty office, a telephone and little else, was able to produce documentation that Quality Control auditors were unable to flag as BOGUS!!!
Russ Niles has done the math on the number of aircraft within the control of the Russian government—the Federal Air Transport Agency a/k/a Rosaviatsiya—and the airlines under the thumb of the Putin Regime. Given the embargo imposed after the Ukraine Invasion, no LEGITIMATE replacement parts are available to maintain the 1,167 commercial airliners in their inventory. Multiple sources have identified countries and companies as trying to evade this boycott of Russia and these rogue organizations may be an avenue for Russia to move its bogus parts outside of the Iron Curtain.
Both the paper and the physical examinations of this flow of materials from the UK and Russia require detailed knowledge of the FAA’s complex SUSPECTED UNAPPROVED PARTS (SUP) standards. As the creators of these ersatz replicas evolve their craft, the FAA adds to their inspection tools. The regulatory consequences to ingesting these bogus articles pale in comparison if a well-disguised “spare part” fails in flight.
The threat is real and the incentive to try to create parts that do not meet FAA standards and with the price increases the risks are magnified as the flow of SUPs increases. Given the dynamic state of FAA rules and guidance, it would be wise to consider advanced refresher courses.
Dedicating time and efforts to ENHANCE YOUR QA/QC TEAM’S SKILLS should REDUCE THE LIKELIHOOD THAT INFECTED PARTS WILL INFEST YOUR INVENTORY- an advanced type of preventative maintenance.
Criminal investigation into alleged unapproved engine parts leads fraud officers to raid UK site
By David Kaminski-Morrow6 December 2023
- Criminal investigations have been launched into a UK-registered company, AOG Technics, which is suspected of distributing unapproved parts to airlines.
As a result of the concerns which have emerged about the firm, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office has raided an address and arrested an individual. The person detained is being questioned. Investigators and National Crime Agency officers have seized material from a site in London. AOG Technics has supplied engine parts for CFM International CFM56 and General Electric CF6 powerplants for several years.
The parts were mostly sold to overseas companies that install components, but were also passed to some UK carriers maintenance firms. “This investigation deals with VERY SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS OF FRAUD involving the supply of aircraft parts, the consequences of which are potentially far reaching,” says Serious Fraud Office director Nick Ephgrave. He says the office will investigate “vigorously,” adding: “We are determined to establish the facts as swiftly as possible.”
AOG Technics provided parts for CFM56 engines, which power Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s
Particular concerns about AOG Technics emerged in August when the European Union Aviation Safety Agency notified operators that it suspected the company had distributed unapproved components for CFM56s. These components had been distributed with FALSIFIED AUTHORISED-RELEASE CERTIFICATES, the regulator stated. Similar alerts have been issued by the US FAA and UK Civil Aviation Authority. The Serious Fraud Office says it is working with the CAA and other regulators to study the information obtained, in order to determine whether there are grounds for prosecution.
Analysis by CFM International identified over 100 engines which contained parts sourced from AOG Technics. Documents filed with the UK’s corporate register state that AOG Technics was established in 2015, at a residential address in the coastal town of Hove. The registered office address has since changed seven times, including twice to a high-profile location in central London near Buckingham Palace.
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Russia Seized 10 Times More Airliners Than It Lost To Sanctions
By
Russia’s Transport Minister has come out with what he says is the final tally of aircraft lost and gained when sanctions from the Ukraine invasion were imposed and it would APPEAR THE COUNTRY MADE OUT like bandits. Vitaly Savelyev told Russian media outlet RBC (and translated by Business Insider) that 76 RUSSIAN-REGISTERED AIRCRAFT were stranded OUTSIDE the country when most countries closed their airspace to them almost two years ago. By contrast, Russia effectively seized MORE THAN 800 AIRCRAFT owned by Western leasing companies and put them on its own registry.
Savelyev suggested Russia was the aggrieved party in the whole affair. “We were unexpectedly taken by surprise by the decision to take away the planes,” Business Insider quoted Savelyev as saying. The aircraft were outside the country for maintenance, storage or on flights. An An-124 owned by Volga Dnepr is caught up in a diplomatic snarl in Toronto. It was supposed to be donated to Ukraine, but the cargo company has since sued the Canadian government alleging the seizure of the plane violates a trade treaty between the two countries.
Savelyev says the country has 1,302 commercial aircraft, 1,167 of them airliners. MANY OF THOSE ARE IN A STATE OF QUESTIONABLE AIRWORTHINESS, however, since the sanctions have virtually stopped the flow of parts needed to maintain the aircraft. Savelyev said Russia has actually offered to buy some of the seized planes from the leasing companies but to no avail. “There is a ban and a demand for return; they do not want to enter into negotiations on compensation for their payment and the purchase of ships from them,” Savelyev said. Sending the planes back is out of the question, he added, because doing so “MEANS LEAVING ITSELF WITHOUT AVIATION.”
