Airlines hunting for suspected fake engine parts

Aircraft engine manufacturer CFM, a joint venture between GE and Safran, has alerted its clients to a supplier who may have sold non-certified parts.

The engines concerned are the CFM56 used on the previous generation of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft.

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Some 34,000 CFM56 engines were manufactured but there is as yet no information as how many may have been fitted with fake parts, which Bloomberg News first reported.

The EU’s Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) alerted airlines and maintenance shops last month that the British firm AOG Technics had sold parts with false Authorised Release Certificates (ARC).

“In each confirmed example, the approved organisation, identified on the ARC, has attested that the form did not originate from within their organisation, and the certificate has been falsified,” the AESA said in a statement.

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“To date, AOG Technics has not provided information on the source of the parts, or of the falsified ARCs,” it added.

AOG Technics did not answer calls at its London office on Monday.

Its internet site was also down.

A CFM spokesman said the company was “was fully supporting the investigation by regulators into the false certification accompanying pieces sold by AOG Technics.”

AESA urged airlines and maintenance firms to search their records for use of parts supplied by AOG Technics and verify if the certification is genuine or not.

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Uncertified parts should be set aside and any that have been installed on aircraft should be replaced, said AESA.