Workers Facing Charges After Shoddy Airplane Repairs

LINCOLN (CBS13) -- Federal investigators have filed charges against six workers from a defunct local business for allegedly performing fraudulent repair on a wide range of aircraft, including an incident where a paperclip was used to complete maintenance on an airplane.

United States Attorney Benjamin Wagner announced Thursday that 36 counts of conspiracy and fraud were filed against former executives and supervisors at WECO Aerospace Systems Inc., an FAA-certified air repair station that was bought out by another company in 2007.

The alleged incidents took place before the business was sold and the current owners have cooperated fully in the investigation, authorities said.

The six suspects were allegedly "repairing aircraft parts using substandard parts, were not performing tests required by FAA regulation" and did not have proper equipment to carry out a number of repairs on small planes, commercial jets and even military aircraft, Wagner said.

In one instance, two of the defendants allegedly used a paper clip instead of an approved part to complete maintenance work and then returned the part to the customer, saying it had been properly repaired.

None of the shoddy repairs led to an aircraft accident, authorities said. After the FAA learned about the allegations, WECO's certificate was immediately suspended.

The suspects have been identified as 60-year-old Jerry Kuwata of Granite Bay, 58-year-old Michael Dennis Maupin of Arbuckle, 39-year-old Scott Hamilton of Roseville, 53-year-old Christopher MacQueen of Lincoln, 52-year-old Douglas Arthur Johnson of Granite Bay, and 47-year-old Anthony Vincent Zito of Saugus.

Each of the suspects could face decades of prison time and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines if convicted.