AOG Technics: the cost of forged parts certificates

The AOG Technics case shows how a forged parts certificate can lead to investigations, replacements and grounded aircraft, even for an operator that never bought from the fraudster. If you own or maintain an aircraft, the useful step is to make parts origins traceable and have certificates verified by the organisations named on them.

Aircraft records document maintenance and the history of the aircraft and its components. In this case, those records contained forgeries: a legible scan could not establish authenticity.

A sentence, reported losses and a limit to the figures

On 23 February 2026, AOG Technics director Jose Zamora was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison, with an eight-year director disqualification. The Serious Fraud Office says its proceeds of crime case continues on the case page checked on 12 September 2026.

The court’s sentencing remarks, paragraphs 25 and 52 to 55, give three reference points:

• 60,234 parts were sold with forged certificates for approximately £6.9 million between 2019 and 2023.
• The SFO presented £39.3 million in losses, using information from only some victims.
• American Airlines, which bought through intermediaries, reported $29.2 million in costs after identifying 28 affected engines, including $15.9 million to lease replacement engines.

The aggregate does not cover every loss. However, the defence also raised possible overlap between cost items, noted at paragraph 69. It is a partial loss figure reported at sentencing, not an indisputable accounting floor or a valuation of records.

What a certificate helps you check

An Authorised Release Certificate, shortened to ARC in this case, documents a part’s release, for example on EASA Form 1 or FAA Form 8130-3. Here ARC does not mean the aircraft’s airworthiness review certificate, which uses the same abbreviation.

Finding the certificate allows its connection to the part and its issuer to be checked. It does not establish, on its own, that the part may be installed on this aircraft. The responsible organisation must still check installation requirements. EASA also explains that some categories of parts may use documents other than Form 1: the AOG case creates no universal Form 1 requirement.

Nor does the judgment establish that the parts were safe. Paragraphs 58 and 59 distinguish the defence’s assertions from what cannot be confirmed without genuine documentation. Safety, as well as the cost of verification, is at stake.

If your archives reveal an AOG source

The EASA notice of 4 August 2023, checked on 12 September 2026, recommends searching for both direct and indirect purchases, then contacting the approved organisation named on each certificate.

If that organisation confirms it did not issue the document, the notice recommends quarantining the affected parts to prevent installation until eligibility is determined. For an already installed part with a forged certificate, it recommends replacement with an approved part.

No reply is not confirmation of forgery. Keep the check open and refer the doubt to the maintenance organisation, which should determine the next steps under applicable procedures. An owner should not decide the technical condition or release to service alone.

Leave a check the next team can follow

For each check, keep together the part number, serial or batch number where available, certificate, supplier and issuer’s response. Record who checked it, when, and the resulting action. The next person can then see what was confirmed and what remains unresolved.

If a CAMO, a continuing airworthiness management organisation, manages your aircraft, agree where these documents will be held and how the maintenance shop will access them. A digital register can help locate them and track changes. It does not turn a forgery into a genuine document or provide automatic protection in a dispute.

Our recommendation is to test the chain on an existing record: can a qualified person who did not make the purchase connect the part to its certificate and find the verification? The same check is useful before a pre-owned aircraft sale.