Informed FAA Of Possible Use Of Relabled Chinese Parts For Use In Aircraft

A former employee of Ameri-King in Huntington Beach, CA has filed a lawsuit against the aviation equipment manufacturer and distributer saying he was fired for informing federal officials of the possible use of relabeled Chinese or remanufactured parts.

Hoang Nguyen of Huntington Beach alleges that the company sold equipment such as ELTs, altitude encoders, and power converters that were made in China and then relabeled to say they were U.S.-made to distributors who then sold them to companies like Cessna, according to his attorney.

According to The Huntington Beach Independent, the suit alleges that when Nguyen confronted is supervisor, Keith Van, about the practice, he was told that because of the number of parts in an airplane, "no one will be able to say definitively what made the airplane crash."

Nguyen reported the suspected activity to the FAA, which opened an investigation. He was interviewed at the workplace in front of his supervisor and manager at the company. After the interview, Van told Nguyen he could quit his job, and threatened to fire him if he continued to talk to the FAA.

Nguyen did continue to meet with the agency, and was terminated on January 8, 2014. He was told that there was no work for him to do, but says in the complaint that there had been no reduction in work at the company, and that others had been hired to do similar jobs after he was let go.

The company had no comment for the paper.

FMI: www.faa.gov