Although he was working in Miami at the time he is suspected of sabotaging the plane, and when he was arrested on Thursday, he was previously based in California, according to public records and the discrimination lawsuit filed by Alani. The FBI described him in a statement to Business insider as a resident of Tracy, California, a town about 60 miles east of San Francisco, where he appears to have been previously based — it was unclear whether Alani had moved to the Florida area, or whether he was commuting for duty using employee travel benefits.
Court documents show that from 1998 to 2008, Alani was also employed by Alaska Airlines. The airline confirmed his dates of employment to Business Insider. He was fired from the airline in 2008 following a maintenance mistake after working there for about 10 years, according to the discrimination lawsuit he filed against Alaska Airlines.
Alaska Airlines also confirmed to Business Insider that Alani was an employee for several months in 1990.
He sued the airline in 2010, alleging he was discriminated against; the court found in favor of Alaska the following year.
In 2007, Alani made a mistake when installing an altimeter, according to the court documents of the judgement, and he submitted an ASAP report and notified the FAA of the potential safety hazard. Afterward, Alani was given an oral warning and told to attend training sessions again, according to the court documents.
Also in 2007, he made a mistake while installing a pitot tube, a sensor that helps determine a plane's air speed, according to documents Alaska Airlines entered as evidence. The FAA launched an investigation, while the airline gave Alani a written warning, the documents say.
In 2008, according to additional court documents from Alaska, Alani and another employee accidentally installed the wrong battery on a plane. Alani filed another ASAP report and was told that day that he would be suspended pending an internal investigation, according to the documents. Like with the pitot-tube incident, the FAA opened its own investigation, according to the documents, and two weeks later, Alani was fired.
When he was terminated, Alaska Airlines told Alani he was being discharged because of the battery incident, the HGS mistake, and the altimeter issue, the court documents say. Alaska also alleged during the lawsuit that while the airline was investigating the battery episode, the airline found at least three occasions in which Alani was clocked in at both Alaska and his other job at American Airlines.
Alani also had his avionics-technician certificate suspended by the FAA for 30 days after the investigation into the battery error, according to the court documents.