Fake engine parts found in Ryanair aircraft

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Fake engine parts found in Ryanair aircraft

Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, has reported that the airline found

counterfeit components in two of its aircraft engines during assessments in Texas and Brazil,

reported by Aviation24.be and The Telegraph.

These findings come amidst a broader issue in the aviation industry regarding counterfeit parts supplied by a company called AOG Technics, affecting various airlines and regulators worldwide.

AOG Technics has been accused of providing thousands of engine parts with falsified certification documents for Airbus and Boeing models, including older-generation 737-800s used by Ryanair. Although Ryanair claims it never directly conducted business with AOG and received these components through intermediaries, the airline removed the suspect parts from the engines,” according to Aviation24.be.

Jackie Schwab, President of Honest Components, a company that procures new and original, as well as obsolete and hard-to-find electronic board-level components, says that counterfeit parts have become an increasing problem in every industry using electronic components including commercial, industrial, automotive, military/aerospace and aerospace.

New and original microchips are becoming harder and harder to find, especially ‘end of life’ or obsolete components. Chip recycling is big business in China. It is a multi-billion dollar industry annually and very closely guarded. The typical microchip recycling house in China is a small business generating approximately $1M each year. The majority of the boards that these small backyard businesses process are from the USA and Russia. In these operations most of the boards are stored outside in open air, with a high risk of water damage, and absolutely no ESD protection.

“Therefore, it has become increasingly difficult to know a board’s true origin. Counterfeit parts you find today are highly sophisticated and can often pass external and internal visual, marking permanency and even pin correlation/electrical testing.

The military even estimates that up to 15 percent of all spare and replacement parts for its weapons, vehicles and other equipment are counterfeit, making them vulnerable to dangerous malfunctions. A high number of components can be easily replicated or modified which leads to the need for even more sophisticated testing in order to detect counterfeits,” says Ms Schwab.

Because of both the quality and sophistication of many of today’s counterfeit parts, they can often pass such inspection protocols as external and internal visual, dimensional check, marking permanency and even electrical testing. Because such components can be easily cloned or altered, more sophisticated testing to detect counterfeit components is necessary, Ms Schwab adds.

“There are distributors who claim to have their own test lab and that their capabilities are reliable enough to avoid counterfeit material to pass through. They may also be ISO9001 and AS9120 certified which adds to the assuredness that their counterfeit mitigation is in place and followed through.

But it is important to make sure that these distributors are not only capable but are certified to AS6081 test methods including functional electrical testing. To address this conflict of interest, there is only one ethical option, using an independent 3rd party test lab. If your current distributor will not allow an independent 3rd party test lab to test the parts, it should be a concern,” Ms Schwab notes.

The Aviation24.be article notes: “Other airlines, such as Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and Southwest Airlines, also reportedly found similar suspect parts. AOG Technics, the company at the heart of the controversy, faces allegations of large-scale fraud from major engine manufacturers General Electric and Safran. AOG’s founder, Jose Zamora Yrala, denies these accusations as he battles the claims against his company.”