AOG is a parts broker, a middleman that supplies parts to independent firms that airlines contract to do repairs on their planes. The parts in question were used to repair jet engines made by CFM International, an aircraft engine manufacturer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company is a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines. It was originally formed to build and support the CFM56 series of turbofan engines.

Earlier this month, it was discovered that thousands of engine part certifications supplied by AOG had been falsified. On Sept. 20, The London High Court issued a ruling that gives the company 14 days to hand over details on any CFM56 and CF6 parts it acquired and sold, along with relevant supporting paperwork. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed Sept. 7 by CFM and its co-owners, GE Aerospace and Safran, against AOG Technics and its founder, Jose Zamora Yrala.

In one instance, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) turned over one of its AAC-038 approval tags, later confirmed as fake, that came with 32 overhauled CFM56 high-pressure compressor (HPC) stage 1 vanes. Two fake FAA 8130-3s covering hundreds of GE CF6 parts were found, the summary said. More than 80 EASA Form 1s representing thousands of CFM56 parts, including turbine blades and seals, have been flagged and confirmed as forgeries. In all cases, the fake documentation was made to look like it came from CFM or one of its owners. 

Now, I have no idea what those parts are or how significant they are to keeping a plane in the air. What I do know is that at any altitude, every single part of any airplane needs to be authentic.

There can be only one reason AOG did this: greed.