[CountVonGuetzli]

Having seen the parts tracking system of a european helicopter manufacturer: They had the most insanely detailed parts tracking system (including certa for every part and sub-assembly and supplier) I have ever seen. I would be surprised if it takes them a lot of effort to figure out which planes are affected.

[hef19898]

Yes and no. In case engine maintenance isnoutsourced, which it often is, the necessary information might not be available to Delta, or any other operator / airline, right away.

That being said, this particular UK company caused the biggest civil aerospace scandal since the 737 MAX. I have zero tolerance for jeopardizing tracibility of parts due to negligence, what the UK company did is outright criminal.

Unfortunately, there is nothing Delta and other Airlines coupd have done to prevent this from happening.

[tremon]

From https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/oct/5/airlines-gro...:

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, when reporters went to visit the company’s headquarters in London, nobody in the building had heard of AOG Technics.

This means that nobody at Delta nor any other airline even took the time to pay a visit to the company's so-called headquarters. For an airline looking to choose a new supplier for airplane parts, I'd say they skipped even to most basic due diligence checks.

[FireBeyond]

“Hey, Boeing, have you heard of these guys?”

[hellotomyrars]

Wholeheartedly disagree they there is nothing they could have done.

Am I surprised? Not really. The whole thing is a pisstake because it seems so inconceivable on its face. Nobody would expect someone to do this in the industry at that level for sure. And so the kind of processes needed to mitigate it were unlikely to be employed.

However, in a very tightly controlled and regulated industry such as this I also don’t think it is unreasonable to expect that they should have the level of verification and just plain awareness of their suppliers to not get caught with their pants down on this en masse.

This isn’t exactly counterfeit and legit bins in an Amazon warehouse getting mixed together before you get the die roll on if you get the genuine $10 kitchen tool or if you get the alibaba special when it shows up at your front door.

[me-vs-cat]

> Unfortunately, there is nothing Delta and other Airlines could have done to prevent this from happening.

You posit that the necessary information was not available to Delta, at least not immediately, due to outsourced engine maintenance. Why can't Delta require their contractor (which wasn't the supplier, AOG) to check that documentation meets requirements? Why can't Delta check the documentation themselves once it is available, prior to the engines needing later service as in this case?

[hef19898]

If it was the same supplier, AOG Technologies, there isn't reallyuch an airline or direct customer of AOGs could heve done.

It was not a problem of absent documentation, because that is obviously rigorously checked by everyone in the chain. So Delta, and regulators, force suppliers to check all documentation for parts. Delta doesn't have to check their sub-tier suppliers documentation, since their tier one is a certified company (in Europe that would ne EASA Chapter 145 for maintenance). What Delta does, is auditing their tier 1s, those tier 1s audit their tier 1s (Delta's sub tier suppliers), and ao on and ao forth.

AOG was audited and certified, which means their paper wirk, process discriptions and so on were compliant. And then AOG cheated, kind of like showing good parts for audit and supplying crap later. If AOG, or anyone else, is that criminal, the only way to catch them is by chance or an investigation after a part fails.