"Not approved parties" on the southwest, American and United planes forcing cancellations and delays
A major scandal is currently taking place in the aviation community.
Flight Cancellations and delays have become a major headache for travelers in recent years, because everything, from Callouts to be bad, including pilot shortages, planes have prompted planes to the grounding. In fact, thunderstorms and logistical problems caused Over 30,000 flights To be canceled the last weekend of July 4. Now, a suspicious scandal concerning the "not approved parties" requires even more cancellations and delays. Read the rest to find out how the Southwest, American and United planes were affected.
In relation: JetBlue cuts flights to 6 large cities, from October 28 .
The FAA has just emitted an alert on "unprecedented parts" in planes.
A major scandal is currently taking place for the aviation community. On September 21, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a security alert Warning of "not approved parts" provided by the British company AOG Technics. According to the FAA, AOG Technics sold part of the plane called rings for the reaction engines General Electric (GE) CF6 without having the agency's approval.
International CFM jet engine manufacturer said to Reuters On September 20, thousands of these parts may have been sold using documents that AOG techniques forged. In court documents, Matthew Reeve , a CFM lawyer and his co -owners Ge and Safran, said that they had identified at least two FAA forged forms for "hundreds" of CF6 parts so far, according to the media.
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They were discovered on a southwest plane last month.
Even before the FAA alert, Southwest Airlines Was the first To confirm that AOG Technics' "suspicious pieces" had made their way on a commercial plane, Bloomberg reported in early September. The carrier said the components had been found in an engine used on a Boeing 737 NG plane and were replaced after the discovery, according to the media. AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB
"We became aware of the problem in early August and took the necessary measures to make sure that we have no parts in our AOG fleet," Southwest said recent declaration in Marketwatch. "Our suppliers carried out an examination of parts from the southwest and identified an engine which contained two blades of low pressure turbine of this supplier. In an abundance of prudence, we made an immediate decision to quickly replace these parts on this one single engine."
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But they have since been found on American and united flights.
It's not just the southwest, however. It seems that at least three major American carriers were victims of the serious scam. United Airlines confirmed that he too Non -scrupulous According to Aog Technics in two plane engines, Bloomberg reported on September 18.
"We are replacing the engines assigned to the two planes before being returned to service, and we will continue to investigate as new information will be available from our suppliers," said a spokesperson from United.
American Airlines is the most recent carrier to make a similar discovery. Only a few hours after the FAA alert is issued, the carrier told Bloomberg that he also had Unprecedented parts of Aog Technics on his planes. "Thanks to the work of internal audits as well as a collaboration with our suppliers, we have identified the components not certified on a small number of planes - each was immediately put out of service for replacement," said a spokesperson of American Airlines. "We will continue to work with our suppliers and coordinate in close collaboration with the FAA to ensure that these parts are no longer in our supply or otherwise used on our plane."
In relation: The American cuts flights to 5 large cities, from October 29 .
Thefts were delayed and canceled because of this scandal.
Transporters must base certain aircraft to make replacements when they find these technical parts AOG, which has already encouraged Delays and cancellations For some southwest, American and united flights, Fortune reported. Outside the United States, Virgin Australian was also forced to melt two Boeing 737 planes due to false engine parts - which means that around 100 planes worldwide have been affected by the scandal so far, according to the magazine.
However, not approved parts are not a new problem in the aviation community. The FAA has created the suspected program of unprecedented parts (SUP) specifically to address unprecedented parts entering the American aviation system and "mitigating the potential security risk of these components installed in planes. In 2016, NBC News reported that unprecedented parts had played a role in almost two dozen Accidents that had led to injuries or deaths since 2010.
Retired FAA inspector Ken Gardner , who helped manage the SUP program from the start, told The News Outlet that unprecedented parts are cheaper for repair workshops and aviation mechanisms to buy because they are not carried out by rigorous tests and expensive inspections to ensure that they do not fail. "Unprecedented parts do not go through it. You have no idea when they are going to fail," said Gardner. "If they fail, it could be critical."
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