American Airlines mechanic in Miami charged with sabotaging plane. It aborted takeoff.

[TexasTowelie]

An American Airlines mechanic was arrested Thursday on a sabotage charge accusing him of disabling a navigation system on a flight with 150 people aboard before it was scheduled to take off from Miami International Airport earlier this summer.

The reason, according to a criminal complaint affidavit filed in Miami federal court: Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, a veteran employee, was upset over stalled union contract negotiations.

None of the passengers and crew on the flight to Nassau were injured because the tampering with the so-called air data module caused an error alert as the pilots powered up the plane’s engines on the runway July 17, according to a criminal complaint affidavit filed in Miami federal court.

As a result, flight No. 2834 was aborted and taken out of service for routine maintenance at America’s hangar at MIA, which is when the tampering with the ADM system was discovered during an inspection. An AA mechanic found a loosely connected tube in front of the nose gear underneath the cockpit that had been deliberately obstructed with some sort of hard foam material.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article234766107.html

[still_one]

1. WTF. That is attempted mass murder. Hopefully they have double checks built in, to catch what

Last edited Sun Sep 8, 2019, 09:11 AM - Edit history (1)

happened here

[Major Nikon]

2. That system is checked by the airplane and the pilot

The airplane has a self check that compares one side against the other. Every crew also cross checks the instruments early in the takeoff roll.

[still_one]

3. Good, and I would hope they have another mechanic always check off the work of the mechanic who did

the work

[Major Nikon]

4. The mechanics are certified

The one in question will lose his certification forever and never work in the industry again.

In the business jet world you often only have one mechanic working on the airplane. I suppose it's possible some airlines require two to sign off, but it wouldn't be a FAA requirement.