SAFO 11005: Laundering of Scrapped Jet Engine Parts

Distributed by: AFS-200 OPR: AFS-300

SAFOSafety Alert for Operators

U.S. Department SAFO 11005

of Transportation DATE: 7/1/11

Federal Aviation

Administration Flight Standards Service

Washington, DC http://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviation_industry/airline_operators/airline_safety/safo A SAFO contains important safety information and may include recommended action. SAFO content should be especially valuable to air carriers in meeting their statutory duty to provide service with the highest possible degree of safety in the public interest. Besides the specific action recommended in a SAFO, an alternative action may be as effective in addressing the safety issue named in the SAFO.

Subject: Laundering of Scrapped Jet Engine Parts

Purpose: This SAFO alerts operators, owners and maintenance technicians that scrapped jet engine blades and vanes have been reintroduced into the aerospace system.

Background: From April 2005 through August 2009, Shelby Enterprises (of Suffern, New York) via parts brokers, Tara Aviation and Tara Technology (of Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency in the English Channel and Ridgefield, N.J) reintroduced scrapped jet engine blades and vanes into the aerospace industry. Shelby Enterprises purchased used jet engine parts called “blades” and “vanes” from scrap metal dealers. Once purchased, the parts were grit blasted and blended at a metal shop – a violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations – to conceal that the parts had been scrapped.

False paperwork was then generated to conceal to FAA repair stations and the purchasers of the aircraft parts that the parts were scrapped and had previously been rejected as non-repairable by other FAA repair stations.

Discussion: Scrapped jet engine blades and vanes may have been subjected to severe stress or heat (as in a major engine failure, fire or accident) and could pose a hazard to flight from an inflight engine shutdown or contained/uncontained engine failures.

Recommended Action: Owners, operators, and maintenance technicians who purchased jet engine blades or vanes that were sourced through Shelby Enterprises, including Tara Aviation and Tara Technologies, should remove them from service.

Contact: Questions or comments regarding this SAFO should be directed to Thomas Mancuso or Fred Grill, Teterboro Flight Standards District Office, FAA, by telephone at (201) 556-6600 or by fax at (201) 556-6623.