European aviation regulators have indicated that an obscure company based in London had supplied fake parts to repair jet engines CFM-56 which power many planes Airbus A320 And Boeing 737 old generation.
The industrial partners of the joint venture CFM Internationalthe American General Electric and French Saffroncontributed to the investigation into allegedly falsified certification documents and unapproved parts for CFM56 engines distributed by London-based AOG Technics, according to public regulatory documents and letters to operators viewed by Bloomberg. “Numerous authorized release certificates for parts supplied via AOG Technics have been falsified”, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said in a statement in response to questions from Bloomberg. In each case, the organization identified as the manufacturer “confirmed that he had not produced the certificate and that he was not the author of the piece”indicated the EASA.
The spread of undocumented or potentially counterfeit in the engine supply chain is rare and treated with the utmost urgency in an industry where every component requires verified provenance to ensure the aircraft safety, knowing that it is impossible to know whether non-certified parts will be as durable under stress. Manufacturers and regulators sounded the alarm weeks ago, sparking a global rush to track down parts supplied by AOG Technics and identify affected planes.
It is not clear how many fake parts may have been installed or how many planes could be affected. THE CFM56, the world’s best-selling jet engine, is installed on thousands of narrow-body aircraft that form a vital part of the global fleet. EASA said Thursday that to date, AOG Technics has not provided details on the actual origin of the questionable parts.
Third-party companies like AOG Technics supply parts to engine repair shops working on in-service commercial aircraft. The new engines CFM International,, the joint venture of GE-Safranwould not be affected by the problem, nor would the successor of the CFM56, the CFM Leapused on the latest fuselages of theA320neo and 737 MAX.
The United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority said in an August 4 safety advisory that it was investigating “a large number of suspicious unapproved parts” supplied by AOG Technics. Some components bearing false airworthiness certificates were found on engines fitted to UK-registered planes, the filing said. CFM has revealed 72 falsified airworthiness certification documents covering 50 part numbers supplied by AOG Technics for the CFM56, according to a spokesperson for the manufacturer.
