Miami

Miami Airline Mechanic Tampered With American Airlines Plane to Get Overtime Pay: Feds

The American Airlines plane with 150 people on board never left for the scheduled July 17 flight from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas after flight crew noticed an error

An aircraft maintenance worker at Miami’s airport allegedly tampered with a critical piece of a passenger plane’s hardware in July to get overtime pay amid a stalled union contract dispute, according to court documents. 

The American Airlines plane with 150 people on board never left for the scheduled July 17 flight from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas after flight crew noticed an error related to the "air data module" and called it off, NBC News reported the documents say.

Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, who worked in aircraft maintenance at the American Airlines hangar at Miami International Airport, is charged with willfully damaging, destroying, disabling or wrecking an aircraft, and attempting to do so, according to court documents.

Alani was interviewed by law enforcement Thursday and said he never intended to cause harm to the aircraft or the passengers, but he had been hurting financially from a stalled contract dispute between the union and the airline, according to an affidavit from a federal air marshal filed in the case.

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