An American Airlines aircraft engineer was sentenced to three years in prison for deliberately sabotaging an airplane’s navigation system with a piece of foam and rubber, local media report.
The incident took place on 17 July 2019. The plane was about to depart from Miami to the Bahamas with 150 people onboard, but an error message popped up when the pilots fired up the system.
Mechanics found the foam and rubber stuck to the system. CCTV footage showed the engineer deliberately gluing it to the computer. Authorities say that the aircraft could have crashed had the error message not shown up.
The aim of the engineer was to ground the aircraft and charge more hours for the repairs. His 30-year-long employment with American Airlines ended immediately. In a letter to his employer he apologised.
