Tracy Airline Mechanic Pleads Guilty To Attempted Destruction Of Aircraft
MIAMI (CBS13) — An airline mechanic from Tracy faces two decades in prison for sabotaging an airplane with more than 100 people on board.
On Wednesday, Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, 60, pled guilty to the attempted destruction of an aircraft.
Prosecutors say he purposely disabled key components of a Boeing 737 in Miami on July 17 of this year. The plane was about to fly 150 people to the Bahamas, but the flight was aborted when pilots noticed alarms going off.
Before the flight took off, Alani inserted a foam substance into the air data module system and used super glue to hold it in place.
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After his arrest, Alani reportedly told investigators he was upset about contract talks between the airline and the mechanics union. Alani said he hoped "to cause a delay or have the flight canceled in anticipation of obtaining overtime work."
Alani is set to be sentenced in March of 2020.