American airline United Airlines has announced that it has discovered counterfeit engine parts on several of its airplanes.
U.S. carrier United Airlines said it found counterfeit parts in two of its aircraft engines. Two major airlines, Southwest Airlines and Virgin Australia, also found parts in their engines that were supplied by a fraudulent manufacturer.
United Airlines said it will replace the engines before the planes return to service. However, the company did not specify what type of airplane the parts were installed on. At issue are the seals on the compressor stator blades, which help direct airflow throughout the engine.
The main supplier of the faulty parts is AOG Technics Ltd. These particular AOG parts were replacement parts used in the older generation CFM56 engines. They were fitted to Airbus SE A320s and Boeing 737s.
Aviation regulators said AOG knowingly supplied replacement engine parts that were backed by falsified documentation.
Virgin Australia also announced that it would temporarily ground the two aircraft after finding the parts supplied by AOG. The company confirmed that the affected aircraft were Boeing 737-800s used for domestic routes across Australia.
The first airline to find AOG Technics parts on its planes was Southwest Airlines. On September 8, the carrier announced that it had pulled a pair of low-pressure turbine blades from one of its Boeing 737 NG aircraft. They were immediately replaced out of an abundance of caution.