If there’s one place you really, really don’t want to experience any engine problems, it’s when you’re more than 30,000 feet in the air and strapped inside a glorified cigar tube. So it was a big deal when it came out that a London-based company was accused of . Now, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office’s investigation into AOG Technics has led to an arrest, .
The SFO reportedly arrested the company’s founder and director Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala after raiding his home. In a statement, SFO director Nick Ephgrave said, “This investigation deals with very serious allegations of fraud involving the , the consequences of which are potentially far-reaching... We are determined to establish the facts as swiftly as possible.”
The supposedly counterfeit engine parts sold using forged documentation reportedly made their way into quite a few companies’ planes, including Delta, United and American Airlines, as well as Southwest and even Ryanair. As a result, airlines were forced to ground more than 100 planes while they worked to replace the engine parts they had purchased from AOG Technics.
The engine in question is CFM56, a General Electric and Safranis-built engine that is used in the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. It’s also one of the most commonly used airplane engines in the world, with a plane using the CFM56 reportedly taking off every two seconds worldwide.
If convicted, it’s currently not clear what kind of a sentence Yrala is looking at. Hopefully, it’s pretty serious considering, you know, those counterfeit engine parts put hundreds of people’s lives in danger every time a plane that had one installed took off. It’s unlikely that both engines would have failed at the same time, but still, that’s not a risk anyone should be forced to take.