A former American Airlines mechanic was sentenced to 37 months in prison on Wednesday for “attempted destruction of an aircraft.” Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, 60, had previously pleaded guilty to tampering with the air data module (ADM) on American Airlines Flight 2834, which was scheduled to fly from Florida’s Miami International Airport (MIA) to Nassau, Bahamas, on July 17, 2019, with 150 people on board. A cockpit error message alerted pilots to the problem before the aircraft left the ground and it returned for maintenance.
Alani, who began working for American in 1988, was arrested on July 18 after being identified on security camera footage. As previously reported by AVweb, he told investigators that his intention 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. Wednesday’s ruling found that there was no evidence to support allegations made by prosecutors that Alani might have links to terrorist organizations.
Gitmo.
That is a reprehensible thing to say.
Harry, it is in the news that someone in this mechanic’s family has ties to terrorist organizations. So, the burden for staying absolutely squeaky clean and beyond reproach is his responsibility now and forever.
This mechanic decided to compromise himself and place the public at risk. Being in a field where safety and integrity is EVERYTHING, this man should and will face every bitter word in the dictionary. Nobody owes this man an ounce of respect. I only hope he learns his lesson.
“Wednesday’s ruling found that there was no evidence to support allegations made by prosecutors that Alani might have links to terrorist organizations.” It’s literally in the article at the top of this page.
The burden of staying clean and beyond reproach will always be his and always has been (it is for all of us), but there is no reason to link him to terrorism.
As for whether Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani was associated with a terrorist group, he is most likely Muslim, and like many other verses of the Koran, Muslims believe in the Koran, for example 3:151 – “We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve for what they have associated with Allah of which He had not sent down [any] authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers. …”
GITMO! also
I retract my GITMO comment.
Ultimately, sometimes it just doesn’t matter why someone did something that may endanger the public. Ties to any organization shouldn’t change his sentence.
“Former AA Mechanic”
Maybe his union can help him out?
Pardon the negative comment, BUT, Kate O’Connor is not a journalist. She made the first glaring error I learned to avoid in my high school journalism course. The attempt to destroy the aircraft did NOT occur last Wednesday, which is how the opening sentence of the article reads: “A former American Airlines mechanic was sentenced to 37 months in prison for ‘attempted destruction of an aircraft’ on Wednesday.”
Kate is a fair and open-minded woman. She also has an e-mail address. I politely suggest that you could send your sentence-structure advice to her, via that avenue. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.
Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, 60, started with AA in 1988. That’s 28 years working. Seems to me about as American as one can get. Unionized, good wages and possibly over extended with credit as with many in America. Stalled contract negotiations, less overtime and looming debts may have created a simple method (until caught) to acquire overtime. Sabotage equipment. We’ve all read about blue flu (sickout) when police contract negotiations stall with police only performing minimum work, aka slowdown until a new contract is agreed on. Why should airline mechanics not create more work to accrue some overtime? Alani probably knew sabotaging the ADM would trigger an error signal/message to alert cabin crew of a major malfunction and delay or in this case cancel the flight. Only in America……