A long-time American Airlines mechanic has pleaded guilty to tampering with an aircraft, but strongly denied there was any link to terrorism.
In a U.S. federal court in Miami, Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani pleaded guilty to attempted destruction of an aircraft.
Prosecutors used surveillance footage to piece together exactly what happened.
“Prior to the aircraft’s scheduled take-off from MIA, Alani had inserted a foam substance into the ADM [air data module] system and used super glue to hold the substance in place.”
This prompted an error light to illuminate as the plane was preparing to takeoff, leading to an aborted takeoff. 150 people were onboard.
Prosecutors had built a circumstantial case of terrorism against Alani, but he and his defense attorney strongly refuted this theory. Instead, Alani confessed only to attempting to delay or cancel the flight in hopes of earning overtime pay. At no time, said Alani, were passengers deliberately put in danger.
His guilty plea comes only three months after he pleaded not guilty to willfully attempting to damage, destroy, disable and wreck a civil aircraft.
But even in declaring his guilt, his lawyer tried to blame-shift. Speaking in his defense, attorney Jonathan Meltz tried to cast blame on American Airlines, arguing that its low wages prompted Alani to take drastic actions.
“He worked double shifts, and triple shifts to provide for his family. After being a mechanic for 20 years, this is what he’s dealing with.”
Alani, who appeared in shackles in the Florida courtroom, will be sentenced in March.
CONCLUSION
Whatever Alani’s motives, his actions seemed to be the straw that broke the union’s back. With unions under court order not to deliberately delay or cancel flights and shamed by Alani, we are seeing far fewer operational difficulties at AA. In that sense, maybe Alani’s selfish motives actually ended up doing more help than harm. Nevertheless, Alani will not be out of jail anytime soon.
image: Daniel Pontet
> Read More on American Airlines:
- American Airlines Mechanics May Now Be Fined For Declining Overtime
- American Airlines Suing Mechanics Isn’t Helpful
- Union Warns Members Not To Fly “Unsafe” American Airlines
- Mechanics Slowdown Makes American Airlines Safer, Not Enjoyable
- American Airlines Mechanics Making Their Mark
- Shocking: American Airlines Mechanic Charged With Sabotaging Aircraft
- American Airlines Saboteur Mechanic May Have Terrorist Ties
- Busted AA Mechanic Was Fired From Alaska Airlines For Fraud And Incompetence
What’s happening to this country? Mechanic sabotaging planes, president selling out to Russia.
Thankfully both have been caught, disgraced and punished. Let this be a lesson to everyone of their kind. You are not special and above the law.
And the law never favours the people. The law favours those in powers….
President selling out to Russia? Have you been asleep the last 3 years? It was actually the Dems who did that. You’re as uninformed as you are mentally ill. Get back on your TDS meds. Still waiting for one single post from you on any travel blog that doesn’t contain some inane leftist anti Trump comment.
It makes no difference or not, as to why this crackpot mechanic did what he did; his Attorney’s excuses are not going to help his convicted client one bit. The Judge should sentence that piece of garbage to thirty years. There are enough problems in the commercial airline industry, without mechanics deliberately trying to sabotage aircraft.
Why wasn’t this guy charged with a terrorist act? There are plenty of documented accidents where blocked pitot tubes were the cause (AF447 comes to mind). There are plenty of safer ways to trigger a mechanical delay on an aircraft which would be caught at the gate rather than once the aircraft is rolling down a taxiway preparing for take-off. Mr. Alani is a certified mechanic and no doubt was well aware of this.
This was an intentional act.