Two Virgin Australia B737s impacted by AOG Technics scandal

[Greg Hyde]

From CH-Aviation

19.09.2023 - 22:07 UTC

Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International) briefly pulled two B737-800s from service after finding engines were fitted with unauthorised parts. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the airline replaced a low-pressure turbine blade on VH-VUT (msn 36608) last week, and at the time of writing VH-YFR (msn 41012) was out of service pending replacement of an inner high-pressure turbine nozzle. United Kingdom-based AOG Technics supplied the parts.

The use of the unauthorised parts, first reported by Bloomberg, was uncovered by Virgin Australia after it began checking AOG Technics-supplied parts in its engines. FlightRadar24 ADS-B data suggests VH-VUT was taken out of service only briefly, having operated several flights over each day in September. VT-YFR's last scheduled flight, on September 16, diverted to the airline's Brisbane base and has remained there since. However, it is expected to return to service later this week. The parts supplied to Virgin Australia were supported by allegedly fraudulent paperwork, which the carrier says rendered the parts unusable. The airline believes no other aircraft in its fleet have been impacted but it continues to monitor the situation.

Several customers have reportedly experienced problems with parts supplied by AOG Technics. Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) recently grounded a B737 after finding provenance problems with parts from AOG. In the last 24 hours, United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) has also disclosed it has found unauthorised AOG Technics-supplied components installed on two of its aircraft engines. General Electric and Safran SA, which jointly operate CFM International, have commenced legal proceedings against the supplier after discovering it supplied engine parts with falsified certificates. The UK court filing says 68 of their jet engines were fitted with unauthorised parts. ch-aviation does not say that the allegations are true, only that they have been made.

The core business of AOG Technics is supplying parts for engines fitted to older generation A320s and B737s. The supplier does not maintain a website and has deleted its LinkedIn listing. However, cached postings say, "AOG Technics is a leading global aircraft support provider to the air transport aftermarket industry. We specialise in engine material, engine leasing, airframe parts and financial solutions." UK company records show AOG Technics Limited was registered in 2015 and has a single director, Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, who holds 75% of the entity's shares.