Airlines Told to Check Firm’s Electronics Gear : Safety: FAA officials say vendor may have misrepresented parts. The alert comes after the FBI seizes thousands of the company’s documents.
The Federal Aviation Administration has alerted several major airlines that the electronics equipment they bought from a Kansas City aircraft parts vendor may have been misrepresented, and it has asked them to ensure that the equipment is in good condition.
The alert, which officials said was disclosed for reasons of “public health and safety,” was issued after the FBI seized thousands of documents from the firm, K.C. Aerospace, during a probe into whether the firm has been falsely describing the condition and origin of the equipment.
FAA and Justice Department officials said they have not ascertained which parts are at issue and how much aircraft safety may have been compromised, if at all.
“We don’t have it sized and scoped-out yet,” said an FAA spokesman in Kansas City. “We had to alert airlines. It looked like some parts being sold do not meet rigid specifications.”
Andrew Stanley, a spokesman for K.C. Aerospace, a 5-year-old, privately owned concern that employs 41 people in Kansas City, New York and Miami, described the firm as “very safety-conscious” and said that “any question of impropriety is totally unfounded.”
Stanley said the company was cooperating fully with the FBI and that only after officials turned over documents to agents on Aug. 15 did the officials present a search warrant.
K.C. Aerospace’s FAA certification as a repair station also is under scrutiny by the FAA, the Justice Department said.
One source familiar with the investigation said the FBI probe began with information from a confidential informant.
K.C. Aerospace sells its services and parts to commercial airlines in the United States and abroad, as well as to brokers and general aviation customers. Jean Paul Bradshaw II, the U.S. attorney in Kansas City who is conducting the investigation, said the firm sells directly to three major airlines and deals with others through brokers. He refused to disclose the names of the customers.
But Stanley said the company’s primary customers are Continental, Northwest and Eastern.
Robert Gibbons, a Northwest spokesman, confirmed that the airline had received an FAA “advisory” about the K.C. Aerospace parts and said the airline now is identifying which components ought to be inspected.
Gibbons said all “rotable,” or reusable, parts that it buys from K.C. Aerospace and other suppliers are “bench-tested” by Northwest mechanics before they are put into an aircraft. The reusable parts usually have to do with a plane’s airworthiness, he said.
A spokesman for the Air Transport Assn., an industry trade group, said the FAA had advised that “a pretty long list of airlines” is represented among K.C. Aerospace’s direct and indirect customers.
The FAA is working to aid airlines in identifying the parts that should be removed from their inventories or replaced, the Justice Department said in announcing the probe.
Spokesmen for Continental and Eastern did not respond to calls for comment.
In taking the unusual step of announcing an investigation, Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh said officials “must be constantly alert to allegations that involve tampering with . . . safety. Such actions . . . will be prosecuted to the fullest extent.”
The Justice Department said the FAA alert was issued on the basis of “preliminary results of the examination of these documents” seized from K.C. Aerospace.
“K.C. Aerospace has neither been charged with nor convicted of any crime at this time,” the Justice Department said. “The investigation will continue and evidence may be presented to a federal grand jury in Kansas City.”
