Guilty Pleas Entered in Plane Parts Scandal

An airplane parts manufacturer and its president pleaded guilty Wednesday to selling thousands of used nuts and bolts as new to several airlines and aerospace contractors.

Rice Aircraft Inc. of Hauppauge, N.Y., and its president, Bruce J. Rice, 42, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and mail fraud.

The fasteners hold together everything from wings to engines and were distributed widely in the aerospace industry from 1977 through 1988, mostly in the early 1980s, authorities said.

U.S. Attorney Gene Wilson said federal investigators have not directly linked the parts to any aircraft crashes. He said Rice Aircraft had the parts secretly stripped and replated or relubricated, and then sold them as new.

3 More Charged

Rice could receive up to five years in prison, fines of $500,000 and court costs of $250,000 at sentencing Feb. 16. The company faces fines up to $50,000 and will share with Rice in possible restitution up to $1 million.

The guilty pleas came as the government charged three more defendants, including two Southern Californians, with paying kickbacks and conspiring to underbid on airplane parts contracts.

Court documents indicate that the recycled parts were sold to the U.S. government, the Israeli government, Airbus, British Aerospace, Grumman, Sikorsky, Martin Marietta, Boeing Helicopters, Air France, United Airlines, the Brazilian airline Varig, Trans World Airlines, American Airlines and Pan American World Airways.