Airline Employees Pleads Guilty to Stealing American Eagle Aircraft Parts
Alvin Randolph, an American Eagle airline employee at the Columbus, OH airport pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus to violating the Suspected Unapproved Parts law and Federal firearms charges. Randolph was arrested by special agents of OIG and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) after selling numerous stolen aircraft parts to an undercover agent in exchange for cash and machine guns. During the course of a 3-month joint OIG-ATF investigation, Randolph claimed to an undercover agent that he could obtain a variety of stolen aircraft parts along with documents falsely certifying the parts met the highest quality standards. False statements regarding the origin of aircraft parts are a longstanding problem in the aviation industry and a significant threat to aviation safety. One of the items sold was a cockpit/cargo key stolen by Randolph, which reportedly would work on all American Airlines aircraft. No sentencing date has been set.