Southwest Air is first major airline to confirm removing an engine part that may have been fake, as supplier scandal grows
Southwest Airlines pulled questionable parts from a jet engine on one of its planes after being notified by suppliers, making it the first major carrier to publicly confirm their use on a commercial aircraft.
A review by suppliers the carrier didn’t identify found “suspect parts” in an engine used on a Boeing 737 NG, Southwest said Friday in an emailed statement. The components — a pair of low-pressure turbine blades — came from AOG Technics and were replaced out of an abundance of caution, it said.
Representatives for AOG could not be reached for immediate comment.
Aviation regulators in Europe determined AOG supplied parts for the repair of CFM56 engines, the world’s best-selling turbine, with falsified documentation, Bloomberg News reported last week.
