Airbus and Boeing fly on counterfeit

The European regulator convicted a British company of supplying counterfeit parts for the repair of CFM56 engines, which were installed on older generations of Airbus SE A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft. The scale of the problem is not fully known: dozens of fake documents have been found so far, and such engines are installed on thousands of aircraft. Airlines and repair services are already hastily looking for a replacement for counterfeit goods.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) announced a problem with a possible mass forgery of certificates on August 4th. IN message The regulator spoke about complaints received from repair services and airlines against the supplier of parts AOG Technics, registered in London.

In particular, services and airlines discovered that some of the parts received for the repair of CFM56 engines were accompanied by fake release certificates.

In all cases, it was confirmed that the company authorized by the authorities to issue certificates did not actually certify parts from AOG Technics.

At the same time, there were only a few such cases. But, as noted BloombergActually the problem is much bigger. CMF56 engines are manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between Safran and GE. And, according to the agency, during the course of the audit, CMF itself found 72 fake certificates for 50 parts from AOG.

AOG Technics is not an authorized supplier of parts for these engines, and Safran and GE sent letters to AOG demanding that they stop supplying parts for their engines as soon as the problem was discovered, a CFM spokesman told Bloomberg.

In early August, the European regulator asked all airlines and engine repair and maintenance centers to check the documentation of parts for CFM56 engines. In case of detection of counterfeit, it was ordered to replace it with certified parts. Aircraft on which such parts were installed must be sent to a service center as soon as possible to eliminate counterfeit products.

The number of aircraft on which uncertified parts from AOG could be installed is still not known. But most of them are apparently registered in the UK, as AOG worked primarily with British service centers.

In addition, it is known that these engines are not installed on the new modifications of Airbus and Boeing aircraft – A320neo and 737 Max.

AOG Technics’ website says it has warehouse facilities in London, Frankfurt, Miami and Singapore.

AOG Technics was incorporated in 2015 and is majority-owned by José Zamora Irala, 35, who is listed as a British citizen in some documents and Venezuelan in others, according to the UK company registry. Neither the agency nor EASA have yet been able to obtain information from AOG about the origin of the parts that were supplied to the repair services, and fake certificates for them.

Kirill Sarkhanyants