Indictment of Eastern Claims Bogus Records : Airlines: The carrier allegedly showed maintenance work that hadn’t been done. Items such as landing gear were involved.
A federal grand jury indicted Eastern Airlines and 10 current and former employees Wednesday for allegedly failing to perform mandatory maintenance on airliners and for falsifying maintenance records to make it appear that the work had been done.
In a 60-count indictment, the government said the troubled airline’s motivation was “to avoid costly flight delays and cancellations.”
The indictments were announced by Andrew J. Maloney, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who said at a news conference here that “we hope to send a clear message, not just to Eastern but to the entire airline industry.”
Maloney said that the allegedly illegal actions were directed out of the airline’s Miami headquarters and that they involved “critical items,” including radar, landing gear, automatic pilot instruments and fuel systems.
Though the already bankrupt airline faces a fine of as much as $30 million, Maloney said “this case is not about fines. This case is about deterrence.” Each person indicted faces a prison term of up to five years and a $250,000 fine on each account.
The highest-ranking defendant is Edward Upton, Eastern’s former staff vice president of maintenance and engineering who has left the company.
The alleged violations, which were said to have occurred from July, 1985, through October, 1989, took place at New York’s John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports and at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport.
Martin R. Shugrue Jr., the trustee who was appointed by a bankruptcy judge in April to run Eastern, said Tuesday that the indictments were imminent. But he said the violations had all occurred before Eastern’s employees went on strike in March, 1989. The carrier filed for bankruptcy law protection from creditors a few days later.
Maloney said Wednesday that his office was made aware of the violations by an Eastern supervisor who reported them “voluntarily” about two years ago.
The government prosecutor said no maintenance violations took place at Eastern after the strike began but that there had been “obstruction of justice” until last October. He said no evidence of impropriety had been discovered since Shugrue took control of Eastern three months ago.
The indictment said: “As a result of unreasonable demands, pressure and intimidation put on them by Eastern’s upper management to keep aircraft in flight at all costs, maintenance personnel failed to perform maintenance work on the aircraft which, if performed, would have delayed the aircraft. The defendants then doctored the log books, work cards and computer entries to indicate falsely that the work had been accomplished.” In a statement issued Wednesday, Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh said: “The alleged conspiracy relating to the falsification of maintenance and safety records strikes a raw nerve in anyone who has ever boarded an airplane. Thousands of innocent passengers may have been put at risk every day by the criminal actions of these defendants.”
The indictment alleged that defendants falsely signed maintenance records for work that had not, in fact, been done; that they forged other employees’ names and signed fictitious names and entered false employee numbers on records fraudulently indicating maintenance had been performed; that they induced other employees to verify that work had been done when it had not, and that they falsely entered worker completion codes in Eastern’s computer--authorizing the aircraft for flight--without doing the work or completing required log books or work cards.
Maloney said faulty cockpit gauges were replaced by backup gauges and that frequently the faulty gauges became the backups--without the knowledge of pilots. He said “sumping,” a very important operation required in aircraft maintenance was often not performed.
Sumping involves removing water that has accumulated in a plane’s fuel tanks. With water in the tanks, pilots might not know how much fuel they had left. Also, the water could freeze during flight, possibly blocking fuel lines.
Besides Upton, the other defendants named in the indictment were Thomas Lewis, who was Eastern’s northern area director of maintenance, Joseph Moser, former maintenance manager at JFK, and the following foremen or other management employees: Elia Dragone, Charles E. Catarelli, Jacques Jean, Roy Hardy, Robert Knox and Stephen Jones.
One other defendant--not listed in the indictment--was identified by prosecutors as Michael Hennessey, a general foreman. Maloney said Hennessey would be named in a separate indictment, but gave no explanation for the separation.
The defendants will appear for arraignment next week, Maloney said. None of them could be reached for comment Wednesday.
An Eastern spokeswoman said Dragone and Upton were no longer with the company and that all of the others had earlier been assigned to non-maintenance positions. On Wednesday, they were put on administrative leave with pay.
The Federal Aviation Administration came to the defense of the present management of the airline Wednesday but warned that it will keep a close watch on its maintenance activities.
“Eastern Airlines today meets the FAA’s safety standards,” FAA Administrator James B. Busey said in a statement released by the agency. “Nevertheless, we are carefully studying the indictment issued today, and if we find anything that gives us concern for safety we will take whatever action is necessary to protect the traveling public.”
