Company director jailed over £7m airline parts fraud
BBC World
February 23, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
A British company director, Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, has been sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for orchestrating a £7 million fraud scheme involving the sale of aircraft engine parts with falsified documents. His actions put global aviation safety at serious risk by undermining regulations designed to ensure passenger flights remain secure. The court heard that between 2019 and 2023, AOG Technics, the company he ran, supplied approximately 60,000 faulty components for CFM56 engines, which are used in Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft. These parts entered the global supply chain with fake "Authorised Release Certificates" (ARCs), making it nearly impossible to trace their origins.
The fraud was uncovered when an engineer at TAP Air Portugal questioned the authenticity of a part he was unable to install correctly. This led to a broader investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which revealed that Zamora Yrala and his accomplices had created fake documents, including ARCs, to sell parts as legitimate. Some certificates were altered versions of genuine ones, while others were entirely fabricated with the help of a Spanish graphic designer. The scam also involved inventing fictional employees and business processes to appear legitimate.
The consequences of this fraud were severe, leading to the grounding of planes worldwide to inspect engines and replace suspect parts. Affected airlines included major carriers like Ryanair, American Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, and TAP Air Portugal, resulting in an estimated £39.3 million in losses. The case highlights the critical importance of ARCs in maintaining aviation safety and the dangers posed by their forgery.
Zamora Yrala's sentence reflects the serious repercussions of such fraud on global security and trust in the aviation industry. His disqualification from acting as a company director for eight years and potential proceeds of crime proceedings underscore
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Originally published on BBC World on 2/23/2026