American Airlines Mechanic Gets Prison For Tampering With Plane

MIAMI, FL — A former American Airlines mechanic who worked at Miami International Airport was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison Wednesday after admitting that he tampered with an American flight that was forced to abort its takeoff from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas with 150 passengers aboard.

Sixty-year-old Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani of Tracy, California was sentenced to 37 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke in Miami. Prosecutors said the mechanic tampered with the air data module, which reports aircraft speed, pitch and other critical flight data. American Airlines captured the tampering on surveillance video.

"While on the departure runway, the flight crew increased power to the aircraft engines in preparation for takeoff," prosecutors said. "This resulted in an error reading by the aircraft’s computer related to the ADM system and the takeoff was aborted."

The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan in Miami and Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office.

Prosecutors said Alani inserted a foam substance into the ADM system and used super glue to hold the substance in place. He initially told investigators he was hoping to pick up some overtime by fixing the aircraft.

But prosecutors said the mechanic shared videos from his cellphone of Islamic State group mass murders and made statements wishing Allah would use “divine powers” to harm non Muslims.

Alani pleaded guilty to the federal charge of attempted destruction of an aircraft.

American's Senior Vice President of Integrated Operations, David Seymour, previously described the incident as "extremely serious" in a communication to the airline's 130,000 employees.

"Fortunately, with appropriate safety protocols and processes, this individual’s actions were discovered and mitigated before our aircraft flew," Seymour said.

American Airlines said it "immediately notified federal law enforcement who took over the investigation" with the airline's full cooperation.

Alani is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Iraq who has worked as an airline mechanic for 30 years, with no prior criminal record.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.