American Airlines mechanic intentionally damages plane about to take off

An American Airlines mechanic who wanted overtime was arrested yesterday for deliberately damaging a plane ready to take 150 people from Miami to the Bahamas.

According to CNN:

Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani has been charged with "willfully damaging, destroying, disabling, or wrecking an aircraft, and attempting to do so," according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

Alani allegedly tried to damage or disable the aircraft's air data module (ADM) system, which reports aircraft speed, pitch and other critical data, on July 17.

On Thursday, investigators interviewed Alani and he "admitted that he accessed the ADM" and that he "inserted a piece of foam into the ADM's inlet where the line connects and that he applied super glue to the foam so as to prevent the foam from coming off," the complaint says.

Alani told investigators that he meant no harm to the passengers - he was hoping the damage would allow him to work more hours and get overtime.

The plane had actually started its flight, but after picking up speed on the runway, received an "error related to the ADM system," so the plane turned back to the concourse. None of the passengers were injured.

Image: by Zidane hadeed - Taken with the Canon T3i by Tevin Belasco, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43686908