AA Mechanic Accused Of Sabotage Denied Bail

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A former American Airlines mechanic charged with willfully damaging, destroying or disabling an aircraft at Florida’s Miami International Airport (MIA) was denied bail on Wednesday. According to an article from the Miami Herald, a federal judge cited evidence presented by prosecutors that Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, 60, could potentially have links to terrorists as reasoning for the ruling. Evidence presented reportedly included shared ISIS videos along with a message wishing harm to non-Muslims found on his phone and failing to tell prosecutors about a trip made to Iraq to visit his brother in March.

On July 17, Alani allegedly tampered with the air data module on American Flight 2834, which was due to travel from MIA to Nassau, Bahamas, with 150 people on board. As previously reported by AVweb, investigators have said Alani admitted to the crime and told them that his intent was to cause the flight to be delayed or canceled so he could collect overtime pay to make up for financial hardship caused by stalled contract negotiations between American Airlines and its mechanics union. Alani began work as a mechanic at American Airlines in 1988.

Kate O'Connor
Kate O’Connor works as AVweb's Editor-in-Chief. She is a private pilot, certificated aircraft dispatcher, and graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. “…so he could collect overtime pay to make up for financial hardship caused by stalled contract negotiations between American Airlines and its mechanics union”

    He did not care about the airline, the union, nor the lives of 150 souls on board, just a few extra dollars for himself? He’s not a terrorist, he’s (a word that we can’t use in decent society).

    • Mark,
      Did you read the article?
      “Evidence presented reportedly included shared ISIS videos along with a message wishing harm to non-Muslims found on his phone and failing to tell prosecutors about a trip made to Iraq to visit his brother in March.”
      That doesn’t sound like a mere greedy mechanic.

      • Some politicians share ISIS videos, wish harm to non-Muslims in the world, and also live at a higher level than their salary would allow. Let’s not start throwing those elected officials in jail just yet. 😉

  2. This happened once when I was in a US Navy squadron where a young ticked off mechanic poked a hole in the plane with a screw driver. They threw him in jail.
    I am a retired American pilot and have never heard of a mechanic sabotaging a plane in 35 years at the airline. NEVER !!!! All, ALL, ALL of the mechanics and pilots were 100% dedicated to making the flight safe. This guy should never be allowed to work at an airline again in any capacity and I hope the courts lock him up for a long time.
    Here is the bottom line. What if it was your daughter or mom on board that plane. What standard of safety would you want. How would you want them treated as a passenger. That is the attitude I saw from the pilots and mechanics for 35 years.

  3. Gee. Maybe the mechanic was just trying to copy a couple of other recent, highly successful 737 accidents. Yes those were of a different model with somewhat different flight control systems. But still an interesting thought. Some people think they know what brought those aircraft down. The question is: what caused the MCAS to fail so spectacularly? I know there are lots of reasons for it. Have we found the correct one?

    I agree with William B. In my whole life in aviation I have never had an aircraft sabotaged. These are strange times we live in.

  4. This is a perfect example of why all the “no fly” lists and running FBI background checks on aviation professionals and even having flight crews going through TSA checks at terminals are a total waste of time and resources. If all of the previously mentioned items actually worked as intended this individual would have never been allowed to keep his FAA mechanics certificate in the first place, much less allowed to work on airliners!

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