Engine maker CFM says up to 96 planes affected by fake parts probe
By Sam Tobin and Tim Hepher
LONDON (Reuters) — Jet engine maker CFM International said on Wednesday up to 96 airliners may be taken out of service for checks as the fallout from a probe into suspected supplies of engine components with false paperwork by a British distributor reached a UK court.
Matthew Reeve, a lawyer representing CFM and its co-owners General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Safran (EPA:SAF), said AOG Technics had engaged in a «deliberate, dishonest and sophisticated scheme to deceive the market with falsified documents on an industrial scale».
He told London's High Court that 86 «falsified re-certificates» had been found and that, by Monday, the number of engines suspected to have parts with forged documents had risen to 96, compared with a previously published tally of 68.
«Potentially, that means between 48 and 96 aircraft being taken out of service whilst airlines arrange for the parts to be removed,» Reeve added.
GE, Safran and CFM are suing London-based AOG Technics Limited and its sole director Jose Zamora Yrala after regulators said they were investigating reports that it had supplied parts for widely used CFM56 jet engines supported by forged documents.
They asked the High Court on Tuesday to order AOG and Zamora Yrala to preserve relevant documents and to disclose sales documents relating to CF6 and CFM56 engines since February 2015.
Lawyers representing AOG and Zamora Yrala said the defendants are «co-operating fully» with an investigation by Britain's Civil Aviation Authority, which sent a lawyer as an observer to Tuesday' first procedural hearing in the case.
They opposed the order on the grounds that it was both unnecessary and excessively burdensome, and questioned the use that would be made of
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