Not meaning to hijack the thread, but this is an excerpt from the current issue of "The Economist" - usually a reliable magazine (in an article about counterfeiting):
At least as hazardous is the trade in counterfeit car parts, which may account for as much as 10% of the spare parts sold in the EU, according to a 1999 study. Even more worrying is the thriving trade in reconditioned aircraft components, passed off as genuine parts along with fake certificates of authentication. Last year, police raided three aviation-parts manufacturers in Rome, seizing more than $2m-worth of used parts—modified and repackaged to look as good as new.
Dodgy aircraft parts kill. In 1989, a plane belonging to Partnair, a Norwegian charter airline, crashed when its tail assembly fell off because of substandard counterfeit bolts holding it to the rest of the body. The CIB believes that the November 2001 crash of an American Airlines flight over New York may have been caused by the failure of counterfeit parts.
Has anyone heard anything about fake parts being used?
(Note to journalists: this is entirely hypothetical, and may well be a case of mistaken identity or similar)
The "CIB" they are referring to is the Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau (CIB), part of the International Chamber of Commerce.