A company accused of selling counterfeit engine parts used in aircraft worldwide was founded in Britain by a shady businessman who allegedly promoted the company with fake LinkedIn profiles and a “virtual” office near Buckingham Palace .
AOG Technics supplied parts used in at least 126 commercial aircraft engines for companies including Delta and United.
But the parts were allegedly secured by forged documents and dozens of planes were grounded for urgent maintenance.
A lawsuit has now been filed against AOG Technics in the UK and it has emerged that the company was also believed to have been involved in a number of suspicious practices – including setting up a fake online presence to promote itself.
Parts were sold to other companies that airlines use for aircraft maintenance. They then made it onto commercial aircraft carrying potentially millions of passengers.
LinkedIn profiles of employees who purportedly worked at AOG Technics contain images that appear elsewhere on the Internet. One profile concerned a man named Ray Kwong, who was listed as the company’s chief commercial officer
Kwong’s image is a stock photo that also appears elsewhere online, including on a textile website that says the man is a “factory owner” named Wang
A LinkedIn profile for Martina Spencer, supposedly an account manager at AOG Technics, also appears to use a stock image
The picture by Martina Spencer is apparently a photo of a woman who is also shown in an Amazon offer for reading glasses for women
The scandal raises serious questions about the industry’s procedures to prevent unapproved parts from ending up on planes. The parts were used in CFM56 engines, the world’s best-selling jet engine, used in aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737.
AOG Technics was founded in the UK in 2015 by Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, believed to be a 35-year-old from Venezuela. He has not commented on the scandal.
LinkedIn profiles of employees who purportedly worked at AOG Technics contain images that appear elsewhere on the Internet, including in promotional materials for other companies. Many of the LinkedIn accounts have since been deleted.
One profile concerned a man named Ray Kwong, who was listed as the company’s chief commercial officer. Kwong cited previous experience at Mitsubishi and Nissan, but could not confirm he was employed by them.
His photo shows a gray-haired man in a smart shirt with a striped blue tie. The same image appears on other websites – including one for a textile company that claims the man is a “factory owner” named Wang.
Another employee was listed on LinkedIn as Martina Spencer, reportedly an account manager for AOG Technics. Her picture appears to be another archive photo of a woman whose image was also used in an Amazon listing for women’s reading glasses.
In addition, the company strengthened its image by using a “virtual” office in central London, within walking distance of Buckingham Palace.
If you search for the address “The Nova Building at 79a Buckingham Palace Road”, you will find a luxurious office building with a glass facade.
In addition, the company strengthened its image by using a “virtual” office in central London, within walking distance of Buckingham Palace. In reality, AOG Technics has no physical presence there at all and appears to have merely rented a mailing address for just $150 per month
The documents show that the company was founded in 2015 and was initially listed at a residential address in the coastal town of Hove in the south of England
In reality, AOG Technics has no physical presence there at all. The company appears to have simply rented a mailing address for just $150 per month.
Business records in the United Kingdom show that the company’s first official address was a small house in the seaside town of Hove in the south of England. The company then moved into a second residential building in Hove before moving to London in 2017, eventually settling in the Nova Building.
The documents signed by Yrala also show that the company had assets of approximately $3 million in 2022, illustrating the scope of the operation.
Aviation experts question how an alleged fraud of such magnitude could take place in an industry where there are many regulations – and where a faulty part could potentially cost the lives of hundreds of people.
Phil Seymour, president of British aviation consultancy IBA, said: “This is not a new problem in the industry.” There have always been people who wanted to make money from aircraft parts.
“The big problem here is that these parts have found their way into engines; This is the game changer for me.’
CFM, the company whose engines are affected by the scandal, said there were no reports of the use of counterfeit parts. Rather, it’s about thousands of parts with presumably incorrect documentation. Some remained undetected for years.
It is not clear how AOG Technics obtained the parts.
CFM fears that false documentation could result in old parts being passed off as new or parts being dumped that lack the traceability necessary to ensure their safety.
In one case, paperwork for the sale of a key component called a low-pressure turbine to a Florida company in 2019 was signed by a man named “Geoffrey Chirac,” believed to be a nonexistent AOG Technics employee.
The scandal has rocked the airline industry, with potentially faulty parts ranging from small nuts and bolts to vital turbine blades. Pictured: Manufacturing parts for an Airbus A320 wing
The most affected engine model was a CFM56 (pictured), which alarmingly holds the record for the most engines ever sold to airlines, with over 33,900 examples
According to CFM court documents, the alarm was first raised on June 21 when TAP Air Portugal’s maintenance department said it was concerned about the documentation of a small part called a damper that it had purchased from British distributor AOG Technics.
“The item appeared to be older than shown,” CFM said.
The birth certificate that must accompany every aerospace item contained a false signature, according to a recently released court filing outlining the extent of the detective operation.
According to CFM, the same airline found 24 forms from the same seller with “significant discrepancies” within 20 days.
AOG told a British court last month that it was “fully cooperating” with the investigation without commenting on CFM’s claims.
While the development of aircraft parts is subject to strict regulations and requires separate approval for their manufacture, setting up warehouses to distribute these parts does not require formal approval.
“This is an area of regulation that needs to be examined as most dealers self-certify,” Seymour said.
“They realize that it is not in their interest to supply counterfeit parts, so they have their own quality systems and a lot of self-control, but no official regulatory approval.”
The alleged fraud is another scandal rocking the airline industry, including controversies in the U.S. over near misses and flight cancellations.
Recent examples include several cases in which planes nearly collided while taking off or landing at major U.S. airports. Others involve a near mid-air collision between two aircraft traveling at more than 500 mph.
They are among the 46 “close calls” in July. Industrial workers blame the shortage of air traffic controllers, which forces many in the profession to work mandatory overtime. The demands of the job have caused some to burn out and even use alcohol and sleeping pills to relieve stress.
A shocking 99 percent of air traffic control facilities in the United States are understaffed, according to the New York Times. 310 of 313 facilities do not have enough workers.
Some of them, including the regional facility in New York and a high-rise in Philadelphia, are operating at about 60 percent of staff or less.