Major aerospace industry players including Boeing and Airbus formed a coalition that strives to prevent unauthorized parts from entering the global aviation supply chain, according to a Feb. 22 press release from GE Aerospace.
Other founding members of the Aviation Supply Chain Integrity Coalition include senior representatives from GE Aerospace, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Safran, StandardAero and United Airlines, according to a statement.
The coalition’s formation comes after the firm AOG Technics allegedly sold thousands of unapproved engine parts with forged paper work into the aerospace supply chain through the engines of CFM International, which is co-owned by GE Aersopace and Safran. Since the incident, law enforcement have made an arrest in connection to to the AOG Technics investigation.
The coalition’s goal is to prevent similar incidents in the future. In the release, the group said the AOG Technics episode ultimately impacted fewer than 1% of CGM engines due to a quick industry response, with most affected parts being items like bolts and washers.
“We were able to stop a rogue actor and quarantine the parts last year thanks to swift action from the aviation industry, but more is needed to stop anyone who tries to take a shortcut in the future,” said co-chair Robert Sumwalt, executive director for Embry-Riddle’s Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety.
The coalition is already operational as of this month, and has launched a 90-day review to “determine opportunities to strengthen existing supply chain operations,” according to the press release.
The aerospace industry has been plagued with quality failures and ongoing supply chain issues for some time.
Boeing and its supplier Spirit AeroSystems, for instance, have been in the hot seat after an Alaska Airlines incident in early January. This led the Federal Aviation Administration to crack down on its oversight of Boeing’s production and manufacturing operations. Spirit AeroSystems has also been battling a slew of quality defects for years, with shareholders filing a lawsuit against the supplier for “widespread and sustained quality failures” in December.
Earlier in 2023, aerospace supplier Pratt & Whitney announced plans to recall and inspect a significant portion of one of its engine lines after discovering a manufacturing issue. The supplier’s parent company, RTX, said it would pull roughly 200 of its PW1100G engines by September, with plans to remove another 1,000 inspected engines over the next nine to 12 months.
