Quality guide

How to verify an aircraft parts supplier and the documents behind a part

By the MG AVIATION TECH team · Published · 10 min read

In 2023 aviation regulators in the UK, Europe and the US warned that a London trader, AOG Technics, had sold engine parts with falsified release certificates. The fraud came apart when one airline asked the manufacturer whether a certificate was genuine. This guide covers what to ask a supplier, how to check the documents, the red flags, and how to report a suspected unapproved part.

What happened in the AOG Technics case

The facts below come from the regulators and the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

  • 4 August 2023. The UK Civil Aviation Authority issued Safety Notice SN-2023/004: engine parts “including CFM and GE” had been supplied with false release certificates — EASA Form 1 and FAA 8130 — and shipping bills “which claim provenance back to OEM.” EASA's suspected unapproved parts notice the same day covered CFM56 parts: in each confirmed case, the organisation named on the certificate said the form did not come from it. Both asked the industry to check each AOG Technics part with the organisation named on its certificate, and to quarantine any part whose certificate that organisation did not recognise.
  • 21 September 2023. The FAA's Unapproved Parts Notification 2023-AAE-EHL-20230801-713 covered GE CF6 bushings, P/N 1856M94P01, sold to TAP Maintenance & Engineering without FAA production approval and with falsified 8130-3 forms. The fakes gave the wrong block 7 description for the part number, lacked the User/Installer Responsibilities statement and did not match GE's formatting.
  • Prosecution. The SFO announced its investigation on 6 December 2023 and charged the director, Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, with fraudulent trading on 28 May 2025. He pleaded guilty on 1 December 2025 and on 23 February 2026 was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to 4 years 8 months in prison.

According to the SFO, between January 2019 and July 2023 the company sold more than 60,000 engine parts worth £6.9 million with forged Authorised Release Certificates, most of them for the CFM56, in what it called a £39.3 million fraud. The director doctored genuine certificates, faked shipment memos suggesting direct purchases from manufacturers such as Safran, and invented sales and quality managers. It ended when an airline asked Safran to check an AOG Technics part, and Safran identified the certificate as a fake.

The lesson: a certificate that looks right proves little on its own. What worked was asking the organisation named on it.

Why it matters: unapproved and suspected unapproved parts

FAA Advisory Circular 21-29D defines an unapproved part as one that fails the criteria of 14 CFR 21.8 or 21.9, including intentionally misrepresented and counterfeit parts. Examples: parts claimed to come from a production approval that was never issued, parts whose required documentation cannot be provided, life-limited parts misrepresented as new or as having life left. A suspected unapproved part (SUP) is one that someone believes may not be approved — because of a different finish, size or color, missing identification, or incomplete or altered paperwork.

Neither an FAA Form 8130-3 nor an EASA Form 1 is approval to install; the installer decides. And in AC 00-56B the FAA says that when a certificated customer that uses an accredited distributor voluntarily reports a potential violation, it will count the part's accredited source as a mitigating circumstance. Your choice of supplier is part of your compliance record.

What to ask the supplier

Accredited, certified — or just a member?

The FAA does not directly regulate parts distributors. Instead, AC 00-56 (revision B, change 1) sets out a voluntary program: an independent organization audits the distributor on site against an FAA-accepted standard — ASA-100, ISO 9001, AS9100, AS9110 or AS9120 — in full at least every 36 months, with a surveillance audit in between. The distributor counts as accredited once it appears in the AC 00-56 database, which the Aviation Suppliers Association (ASA) keeps for the FAA.

ASA-100 is ASA's own standard, written for AC 00-56 and now at revision 5.0; under the ASA Accreditation Program companies are audited to it every 36 months, and ASA publishes the list of ASA-100 accredited companies with expiry dates — 1,142 entries when we last checked it, on 20 September 2026; ASA updates the list daily, so treat any count as a snapshot and look your supplier up yourself. AS9120 is the SAE quality standard for aerospace distributors that buy and resell parts, built on ISO 9001 and AS9100. Certificates in the AS9100 family are recorded in the IAQG's OASIS database, which you can search after registering a public account.

Membership is not accreditation. ASA's membership page says accreditation requires an on-site audit and that membership “does not validate or approve an organization's quality system.” A logo, a member number or “operating to ASA-100 principles” is not an audit. MG AVIATION TECH, for example, is an ASA member: type the company name into the ASA member directory and the entry comes up. The directory says so in its own words — “Membership does not require an audit, the membership certificate does not mean the company is accredited to ASA-100” — and tells you to check the ASA-100 and AC 00-56 databases instead.

Ask for the certificate and check it yourself:

  • ASA-100 or another AC 00-56 standard: ASA's ASA-100 list and its FAA AC 00-56 list. ASA warns on the ASA-100 list that being listed “should not be the only factor evaluated”; on the AC 00-56 list it adds that it “only verifies that the documentation are submitted in accordance with the submission requirements as detailed in AC 00-56.”
  • AS9100, AS9110, AS9120: OASIS — check that the certificate is current and issued to the company and site selling to you.
  • Repair stations: the FAA's Find a Facility dashboard, and EASA's status list of Part-145 approvals held in the US, Canada and Brazil.

Questions for a new supplier

  • Which document ships with this part, who issued it, and can I see a copy before I order?
  • What is the trace to the last certificated source, and is every transfer since then documented?
  • For a life-limited part: are the back-to-birth records complete?
  • Who is your quality manager, and can I call them? AOG Technics invented its own.
  • Will you accept a purchase order that makes the documents a condition of acceptance? AC 21-29D recommends asking for traceability on the order, and rejecting parts that arrive without it.
From our quote data

In supplier quotes we received between June and September 2026 — about 112,000 priced offer lines — 46.6% of lines stated no certificate at all. Where one was named, it was a CoC on 13.9% of lines, an FAA Form 8130-3 on 12.8%, an EASA Form 1 on 8.8%, a manufacturer's certificate on 7.6% and a dual release on 4.4%. A trace was stated on only 44.3%. That is what quotes say, not what ships with the part — so ask before the purchase order, not after the box arrives.

How to check the documents

Each document answers a different question; know which one you hold before you judge it.

DocumentWhat it provesWhat to check
FAA Form 8130-3, production release (block 13)A new part conforms to approved design data and is in a condition for safe operation.Block 11 reads NEW; block 14 is shaded. If issued at a distributor, an air carrier or a repair station, block 12 names the manufacturer (production approval holder).
FAA Form 8130-3, return to service (block 14)Maintenance by an FAA-authorized organization, approved for return to service.Block 11 names the work, block 12 describes it; block 14c gives a certificate number you can look up.
EASA Form 1The same two functions under EU rules: production release (block 13) or maintenance release (block 14).The same block logic, and an issuer whose approval you can confirm.
Dual release (8130-3 with an EASA statement)A maintenance release under FAA and EASA Part-145 rules, eligible for US- or EU-registered aircraft (AC 43-9D).EASA Part-145 statement and approval number in block 12; an issuer holding both approvals.
Certificate of Conformity (CoC)A producer's or seller's statement that the part conforms; for standard parts, what AC 00-56 expects on receipt.Who signed it — manufacturer or reseller — and whether it ties back to the manufacturer.
Trace documentsWho has held the part since it was last certified.An unbroken chain to your supplier, with consistent names, dates and numbers.
Back-to-birth recordsThe full history of a life-limited part: installations, hours, cycles.No gaps; current life status stated.
Non-incident or incident clearance statementA declaration about accidents, incidents, severe heat or stress, salt water and military origin.Who signed it and for which period. A declaration, not a release certificate.

Verify with the issuer

This is the check that exposed AOG Technics, and what the CAA and EASA told the industry to do: ask the organisation named on the certificate to confirm that it issued that form — that tracking number, that part and serial number. Find its contact details yourself, not on the paperwork you were sent. Issuers keep records for this: FAA Order 8130.21J requires the issuer of an 8130-3 to retain a copy, and the EU instructions for the EASA Form 1 require the originator to keep it “in a form that allows verification of the original data.”

Read the form block by block

  • Blocks 7 to 10 — description, part number, quantity, serial number — match the part in your hand.
  • Block 3 has a unique tracking number; block 4 gives the issuer's name and physical address.
  • Block 11 fits the order: NEW for a production release; OVERHAULED, REPAIRED, INSPECTED/TESTED or MODIFIED for a return to service.
  • Production (block 13) and maintenance (block 14) releases are never mixed on one form.
  • Dates are a 2-digit day, the first three letters of the month and a 4-digit year — the FAA order writes the format as dd/mmm/yyyy, for example 03/Feb/2026.
  • The original layout and wording are intact, including the User/Installer Responsibilities statement.
  • A copy is marked “COPY” or “DUPLICATE”; a split lot shows the quantity shipped and who split it, and when.

Trace to the last certificated source — and back to birth where it matters

No regulation requires back-to-birth traceability for every part, as ASA has long pointed out. Buyers usually ask for a trace to the last certificated source — the manufacturer if new, the repair station if overhauled — with every later transfer documented. Appendix 1 of AC 00-56B shows what an accredited distributor must hold on receipt for each class of part.

Life-limited parts are stricter. Operators must keep their current status (14 CFR 91.417), and whoever removes one must control it — for example with a record or tag of part number, serial number and current life status — and pass that record on when the part is sold (14 CFR 43.10). A gap in the history is a gap in the life count.

Non-incident statements

A non-incident statement is widely requested, but an article published by ASA points out that it is not required by regulation. IATA's Incident/Accident Clearance Statement instead declares that airworthiness was re-established after any such event. Neither replaces a release certificate.

Red flags

AC 21-29D lists warning signs for an unfamiliar supplier. None is conclusive on its own:

  • A price well below other quotes for the same part.
  • Delivery far shorter than others offer when stock has run out elsewhere.
  • An unidentified distributor implying an unlimited supply.
  • No documentation of production under an FAA approval or of maintenance under 14 CFR part 43.

AOG Technics adds three:

  • A trace claiming a direct purchase from the manufacturer that the manufacturer cannot confirm.
  • People you cannot reach through any independent channel.
  • Certificates that differ in layout, wording or description from what the named issuer produces.

On the part: altered packaging, tampered markings (serial numbers stamped over), or signs of prior use on a part sold as new.

How to report a suspected unapproved part

Segregate the part first. AC 21-29D suggests trying to resolve the issue with the supplier before reporting — missing documents may simply be missing. If that fails:

  • United States. Send FAA Form 8120-11, Suspected Unapproved Parts Report, to the FAA Hotline; the FAA's SUP page lists the current channels, and the Hotline also takes reports by phone at (800) 255-1111. Reports can be anonymous or confidential.
  • European Union. Under Regulation (EU) 376/2014 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1018, the use of parts “from unknown, suspect origin” is an occurrence subject to mandatory reporting: report it through your competent authority. For AOG Technics, EASA also asked for reports directly through the ECCAIRS 2 portal. EASA publishes a list of unresolved SUP cases.
  • United Kingdom. Email the CAA's Suspected Unapproved Part Report to [email protected]; the CAA's SUP page also lists confirmed cases.

Keep the part, packaging and documents until the case is closed.

A practical checklist

  1. Confirm the company exists: registered name, physical address, people you can reach independently.
  2. Check the quality certificate on the ASA-100 list, the AC 00-56 list or OASIS. Membership is not accreditation.
  3. Check release authority. If the supplier releases parts itself, confirm its FAA or EASA Part-145 approval and scope.
  4. Ask before you order: which document ships with each line, who issued it, what the trace is — and a copy.
  5. Write documents into the purchase order as conditions of acceptance.
  6. Question outliers in price or lead time.
  7. Match the paper to the part, block by block; no mixed releases; original layout.
  8. Verify with the issuer, using contact details you found yourself.
  9. Check the trace to the last certificated source, and the full life history of life-limited parts.
  10. Inspect on receipt; quarantine anything doubtful and report it if the supplier cannot resolve it.
  11. Watch the alerts: FAA Unapproved Parts Notifications, EASA's and the UK CAA's SUP lists.

Ask us for the documents before you buy

Send your RFQ to [email protected] and say which certificate and trace you need on each line. Ask which documents come with a part, and for copies, before you order — then check them as this guide describes. In RFQ Radar, every quoted line shows its condition and certificates, and when you order you can tick the lines that need a certificate.

Send your RFQ →

Our client portal, RFQ Radar, keeps every quote, order and invoice in one place.

Sources