Complex Trail Of Fake Jet Parts -- Seattle Raid Offers View To Vast Industry

In seizing two truck loads of counterfeit jetliner parts and fraudulent documents from two Seattle-area homes this week, federal authorities revealed another small slice of the vast world of bogus airplane parts.

Bogus parts look and work like the real thing but generally do not adhere to extensive engineering specifications nor to strict quality-assurance steps required in the making of authentic parts.

"They may or may not follow all the specifications," said Bjorn Hansen, president of Kent-based Hansen Machine Corp., an approved Boeing parts supplier. "If somebody is going to . . .try to make a fast buck outside the system, who's to say they're going to follow the specs?"

While no jetliner crashes have been attributed to bogus parts, industry experts say counterfeit parts are widely used and probably prone to early failure. What degree of hazard this poses to the flying public remains unknown.

The Federal Aviation Administration, responsible for certifying U.S.-registered jetliners as safe, last week issued a statement saying it has "not identified any parts that pose a safety risk," but added that it is continuing to evaluate the issue.

Authorities are aware that substandard fasteners were widely disseminated over a long period by two parts manufacturers, Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Rice Aircraft and Culver City, Calif.-based Voi-Shan. Rice and Voi-Shan were the subjects of separate federal investigations in the early 1990s.

Some industry observers believe the problem of bogus airplane parts is on the rise, driven by an irresistible incentive for scam artists to tap into the lucrative and loosely regulated industry of supplying spare parts for the world's fleet of 12,000 jetliners.

Thousands of parts-brokering businesses have sprung up to channel hundreds of millions of dollars worth of spare parts as jetliners are undergoing constant refurbishment. The parts range from simple fasteners to entire landing-gear assemblies.

Parts buyers - the airlines and independent aircraft maintenance firms - generally are in a hurry to conduct maintenance chores and put the jetliners back to work.

Virtually all spare parts that feed this activity are required by FAA rules to be produced directly by the aircraft manufacturer or by approved suppliers who must meet strict criteria. The idea is to ensure that each part includes the latest improvements, is made from the best raw materials and undergoes the highest level of inspection and testing.

Brokers get parts where they can, often buying and selling from one another in a system ripe for opportunists. U.S. airlines last year petitioned the FAA to regulate U.S. parts brokers, a request the FAA declined. Airlines reportedly are considering resubmitting the petition request in light of a California parts broker recently pleading guilty to fraudulently selling more than $4.2 million worth of bogus parts between 1990 and 1994, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology, a trade magazine.

The bogus parts were sold to Airborne Express, World Airways, Cargolux and Continental Airlines, among others. The broker who masterminded the fraud was fined $250,000 and sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison. Two machine-shop owners received lighter sentences and another California parts broker is awaiting sentencing.

The California case appears to parallel the bogus-parts investigation that surfaced in Seattle last week. For two years, FAA special agent Thomas Caven has been tracking two businessmen, both long established in the local machine-shop community, suspected of fraudulently manufacturing and selling 276 types of bogus parts for Boeing jetliners beginning as early as 1983. Here's how the alleged Seattle scam surfaced:

In September 1993, Tramco, an Everett based independent aircraft maintenance firm, became suspicious about a batch of 3-inch-long, hollow bolts used in a wing-surface mechanism of Boeing 727s and contacted the Redmond parts broker, AvioSupport, that had supplied the bolts.

Analysis of the suspect bolts by Tyee Aircraft Inc. of Everett showed that the bolt's hollow core, designed to hold grease, was drilled too short. "It was quite a ways off," said Tyee's Bill Thompson. "It wasn't even close."

AvioSupport records indicate it purchased the bolts from Precision Grinding, a firm based in the South Seattle residence on South Ryan Street raided by federal marshalls and FAA agents last week. Accompanying documents indicated - falsely, as it turned out - that the bolts were manufactured by Hansen Machine, an approved Boeing supplier.

But the Hansen documents were forged. Bjorn Hansen said he has known the owner of Precision Grinding for more than 20 years but never manufactured any parts for him or his company. In a Jan. 13, 1994, appearance before a Seattle grand jury, the man testified that the parts were manufactured in a backyard machine shop on South 200th Street in Kent, the other home raided last week. That business is called Vatne Machine Co.

The man also testified that Pacific Grinding stopped conducting business in July 1993 and that AvioSupport had been its sole customer. However, Caven, the FAA agent, compiled evidence that Pacific Grinding sold bogus parts under the name A-Viation Sales Inc. to brokers in Florida and Texas and elsewhere throughout 1994.

Among the evidence confiscated in the raids were Boeing manuals, blueprints and tags file cabinets, invoicesand dozens of boxes of airplane parts, including bushings, brackets, pins, bolts, gaskets and screws.

The two men remain at large and did not return phone calls. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Barnes said it could be weeks or longer before a grand jury decides to hand down indictments in the case.