After pleading guilty in December, a former mechanic for American Airlines once suspected of having Daesh ties will serve three years behind bars for tampering with an aircraft’s navigation systems moments before it was scheduled to take off from Miami, Florida, last summer.
US District Judge Marcia Cooke ruled Wednesday that ex-American Airlines mechanic Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani was “reckless” in the sabotaging of the air data module (ADM) system belonging to Flight 2834 from Miami International Airport to Nassau, Bahamas, on July 17, 2019.
Alani had previously confessed to implanting a piece of Styrofoam into the ADM system to block the device from registering with the aircraft and prevent it from taking off. He admitted that he wanted the plane grounded so that he could recoup overtime pay.
His actions were confirmed by senior Transportation Security Administration Air Marshal Jose Ruiz, who explained in an affidavit that it appeared the ADM was “deliberately obstructed with what appeared to be a dark Styrofoam-type material.”
The district judge also noted that Alani told investigators that he would not have wanted his family aboard Flight 2834 on the day of his tampering.
Furthermore, pilot Richard Shafer, who was operating the sabotaged aircraft, said in a court declaration that he “firmly” believes that Alani’s tampering with the ADM system “would have exposed my passengers and crew to a higher level of danger had the aircraft gone airborne,” according to the Miami Herald.
Ultimately, however, Assistant US Attorney Randy Hummel told Cooke that he did not “have a linkage of Mr. Alani being a member of [Daesh]” and did not believe the case was related to terrorism. Instead, the issue at hand involved a disgruntled employee attempting to get more pay after 30 years of employment with American Airlines.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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