Falsified Forms from AOG Technics

FAA Aviation Safety SPECIAL AIRWORTHINESS INFORMATION BULLETIN SUBJ: Falsified Forms from AOG Technics SAIB: 2023-15 Date: December 19, 2023 This is information only. Recommendations aren’t mandatory.

Introduction

This Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin notifies operators, repair stations, distributors, design approval holders, and production approval holders, who may issue, receive or transfer airworthiness release certificates (ARCs) (FAA 8130-3 or EASA Form 1, or equivalent), of an ongoing investigation into parts distributed by AOG Technics that have been supplied with falsified ARCs. To date, the falsified forms have been confirmed on engine and APU components installed on transport category airplanes.

At this time based on the parts investigated to date, this airworthiness concern is not an unsafe condition that would warrant airworthiness directive (AD) action under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) part 39. However, the investigation is ongoing, and the FAA may change this assessment in the future.

Background

The FAA and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) were notified of falsified ARCs associated with parts distributed by AOG Technics. EASA published a suspected unapproved parts notice (SUP) on August 8, 2023 which can be seen here: https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/domains/aircraft-products/suspected-unapproved-parts/aircraft-parts- distributed-aog-technics. The FAA published an unapproved parts notice (UPN) on September 21, 2023, which can be seen here: https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/safety/programs/sups/upn/2023-AAE-EHL- 20230801-713. These notices provide additional background into the findings and, as the investigation is still ongoing, additional notices may be published if deemed appropriate.

While the notices above identify certain engine products, other original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts have been confirmed to have been handled by AOG Technics and therefore, we cannot isolate this concern to just the engines identified in the notices.

Operators are primarily responsible for maintaining the airworthiness of their airplane. The FAA airworthiness regulations require that all type-certificated products conform to their FAA-approved type design and be in a condition for safe operation. Issuers of ARCs attest that a part or component meets the airworthiness requirements for installation into type certificated products. Therefore, the integrity of the ARCs used to assemble a product and return it to service is critical in determining that products’ airworthiness.

Recommendations The FAA recommends the following actions for operators, distributors, repair stations, original equipment manufacturers, and any potential issuers of ARCs on transport category airplanes: • Operators, with assistance from your repair network and spare part suppliers, should review your records to see if any parts on your engines or airplanes were handled, at any point, by AOG Technics since the issuance of the ARC associated with the part.

• If parts were handled by AOG Technics and are installed on engines or airplanes, confirmation of the validity of the ARC should be sought from the originator of the ARC. • Purported originators of the ARCs should examine any returned ARCs for signs of tampering and falsification. If a form claiming to be issued by you is not your original document and shows signs of tampering and forgery, you should report as soon as possible to the operator requesting verification, your local airworthiness authority, and the airworthiness authority who has granted you authority for issuing ARCs. o For ARCs originating in the European Union or at European-certified repair stations, SUPs reports can be made to EASA in accordance with the Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) No.: 2017-13R1 at https://e2.aviationreporting.eu/reporting. o For ARCs originating in the United States or at U.S. Certified repair stations, reports can be electronically submitted at [email protected] to the FAA hotline in accordance with the Advisory Circular 21-29 at https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/safety/programs/sups. • If a forged or tampered ARC is discovered for parts installed in your fleet and a legitimate source for the parts cannot be positively identified and legitimate ARCs obtained, operators should develop a plan to remove those parts as soon as reasonably practical in accordance with their Safety Management System (SMS) principles and procedures. • In developing and executing those removal plans, operators should consider the part criticality and prioritize removal of those engine or airplane parts identified as critical parts in the airworthiness limitation section (ALS) of the manufacturer’s instructions for continued airworthiness (ICAs), followed by critical influencing parts which are those parts, the failure of which could affect the integrity of a critical part. Critical influencing parts may also be listed in the ALS of the engine manuals. • To date no critical parts have been found with forged or tampered with ARCs. FAA considers a critical part with a known forged or tampered with ARC a potential safety issue. Additionally, the part will be unable to reliably show compliance with the provisions of 14 CFR 91.403(c), and therefore, if identified, should be removed from service before further flight and reported within 24 hours under your normal safety reporting procedures.

For Further Information Contact

Sungmo Cho, Aviation Safety Engineer, AIR-525, 1200 District Avenue, Burlington, MA 01803; phone: (781) 238-7241; or Christopher Spinney, Technical Advisor, AIR-722, 1200 District Avenue, Burlington, MA 01803; phone: (781) 238-7144; or email [email protected], with attention to one of the above contacts.