An American Airlines mechanic has been charged with damaging an aircraft in July as he was allegedly “upset” over stalled union contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
The plane, with 150 people on board, was scheduled to fly from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas on 17 July.<\/p>\n
But it aborted take-off after the pilots received an error message about the flight computer.<\/p>\n
Upon inspection, a piece of foam was found glued inside a navigation system part which stopped it from functioning.<\/p>\n
Suspect Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani told police he had tampered with the system to cause a delay or have the flight cancelled so that he would get overtime work, according to\u00a0a criminal complaint filed in a Miami court<\/a>.<\/p>\n He did not intend to cause any harm to either the plane or the passengers, he is quoted as saying in an affidavit included in the complaint.<\/p>\n According to the complaint filed on Thursday, Mr Alani glued the foam inside the tube leading from the outside of the plane to its air data module, a system that reports aircraft speed, pitch and other critical flight data, the Miami Herald reports.<\/p>\n He was upset at the stalled contract dispute between the union and American Airlines, which he said had affected him financially, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n The mechanics’ union has been trying to secure a new contract with the airline as the company outsources more maintenance jobs in a bid to curb costs.<\/p>\n A federal court last month issued a permanent injunction against the union to stop it from interfering in the airline’s operations.<\/p>\n American accuses the mechanics of undertaking illegal work slowdowns over the summer period which led to flights being cancelled.<\/p>\n Mr Alani is expected to appear in federal court in Miami on Friday.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"