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Bust renews jet security fears
27 suspected illegal immigrants worked with planes at repair facility
By Allen G. Breed
Associated Press
April 17, 2005

GREENSBORO, N.C. – About 3 1/2 years after Sept. 11, 2001, more than two dozen people believed to be illegal immigrants – including four from “countries of special interest� for terrorist activity – got jobs maintaining commercial jetliners in North Carolina.

They passed through criminal background checks and Social Security screenings. Six held the Federal Aviation Administration’s top mechanical certification, allowing them to clear airplanes to return to service.

Scott Vines – who just learned that the quiet, unassuming Sudanese man who lived in the apartment below him was arrested with 26 others – would like to know how.

“It’s one thing to have an illegal alien working soybean fields or tobacco,� he says. “But to have somebody working on aircraft … that is scary.�

Just how frightened people should be of last month’s roundup of 27 workers at TIMCO Aviation Services’ Greensboro facility is open to debate. Some in the industry say it shows the security loopholes in the growing outsourcing of aircraft repairs.

As much as half of the servicing of the nation’s airliners is now outsourced to third-party vendors whose mechanics are not required to be certified, or to have the extensive FBI background checks done on in-house airline mechanics.

“Any time we have individuals working at critical infrastructure locations like airports that are not who they say they are and may be utilizing fraudulent documents, it does pose a potential security threat,� says Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.

“It exposes a vulnerability, and it also shows that a potential terrorist or criminal could do the same thing.�

Part of larger effort

On March 8, federal agents swept down upon TIMCO’s sprawling facility amid the rolling hills surrounding Piedmont Triad International Airport, where a sign on one hangar says “$AFETY PAY$.�

The raid was part of Operation Tarmac, a three-year-old, multi-agency effort that has resulted in 1,120 arrests and 775 indictments at 200 airports. Previous sweeps have netted janitors, food-service employees and even pilots. But never before had so many aircraft mechanics been picked up at one time.

Most of those arrested came from Central and South America, countries such as Chile, Peru and Venezuela. But two each hailed from Sudan and the Philippines – countries on a Department of Homeland Security watch list for potential terrorist links.

But TIMCO President Gil West says this is strictly an immigration issue and any suggestion of terrorism is exaggerated. The arrested workers, most of whom were outside subcontractors, were all qualified to do the tasks they were assigned and were under the supervision of U.S. citizens federally certified in their fields.

TIMCO officials also noted that the workers with the top certification were working in the sheet metal and seating departments, not on engine systems or other more sensitive areas.

“There isn’t a security or safety issue associated with it,� says West, whose company does work for United Airlines and other passenger and cargo carriers.

Many of those picked up at TIMCO had allegedly used fake North Carolina driver’s licenses to obtain work. According to an affidavit, one Peruvian man told a federal agent he paid $50 for a fake Social Security card at a Miami soccer park.

Six of those arrested had federal airframe and power plant certificates, the top certification for aircraft mechanics, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says.

Bergen says all six passed the tests for that certification, but the agency is looking into whether the men used fraudulent documents to qualify for the tests.

So far, agents have found no link between any of the men and terrorist activities. But Boyd says any of these men could have been subject to blackmail and could have posed a security threat.

Loopholes from outsourcing

Most of the men were contract workers supplied to TIMCO by other companies. Five came from Florida-based Structural Modification and Repair Technicians Inc..

Venezuelan Jorge Ruiz-Alonso, a field labor coordinator for SMART, was not only charged with using falsified documents to get work but is also accused of supplying a fake Social Security number and green card to another illegal alien.

Some see a direct link between outsourcing and the conditions that led to the sting.

Ted Ludwig, a local president with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, says contract mechanics are not required to have the same 10-year FBI background checks required of airline employees. And he says the FAA has not kept up with the trend toward outsourcing.

A July 2003 FAA review found that although some major airlines outsource up to 80 percent of their maintenance, the agency still focused much of its oversight on in-house shops.

“In fact,� the report said, “we found that FAA has no process in place to determine how much air carriers use repair stations.� That was particularly true of foreign repair stations, in places such as Singapore and China.

“They’re outsourcing at all costs,� Ludwig says.

Debunking terrorist link

Tim Hafer, a former airline mechanic who says he was fired for pointing out unsafe practices, has heard horror stories from colleagues of uncertified contractors who barely speak English being given picture cards so they can perform their jobs. At least two of the men charged in the TIMCO cases had interpreters present at their arraignments.

“Everybody thinks: You know there hasn’t been a major plane crash, so why should we worry about it?� Hafer says.

Sarah MacLeod, executive director of the Aeronautical Repair Station Association, of which TIMCO and 700 other companies are members, says people should consider the source of this “sky is falling� mentality.

“The general public should be smart enough to face the facts,� she said. “The facts are that ... air travel is still the safest way to get from point A to point B, and we don’t intend to let down our scrutiny of the industry.�

Part of that scrutiny, she says, will be to determine how the Greensboro situation occurred and how to prevent it from happening again.

SMART Vice President Brian Peterson says his company does a 10-year background check on all of its employees, and that Ruiz-Alonso’s “personal paperwork appeared legal in every respect.�

West says TIMCO, which has about 1,700 employees and 300 contract workers, conducts a five-year background check and work history on prospective employees, confirms identification numbers with the Social Security Administration and conducts a Patriot Act database search.

West adds that it relies on subcontractors to conduct similar checks before sending workers to TIMCO.

Federal officials say TIMCO has cooperated and has not been charged. But the companies that supplied the workers are under investigation.

West says TIMCO has severed ties with SMART and is working with its other labor vendors to ensure that their employee background checks are at least as stringent as TIMCO’s.

Of the 27 arrested, 13 have been charged with criminal violations, to which five have pleaded guilty (one criminal case was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired). An additional 13, including Sudanese native Mostafa Osman Mostafa, are charged with administrative violations and face deportation.