American Airlines mechanic stripped of FAA certificate ordered held in sabotage case

An American Airlines mechanic charged with purposely damaging an aircraft in July during a dispute between the airline and its mechanics union involving stalled contract negotiations will remain behind bars until at least Sept. 20, according to a court filing on Thursday. The FAA also disclosed Thursday that it had issued an emergency order earlier this week revoking Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani’s mechanic certificate with immediate effect. Alani was ordered temporarily detained on Friday. Pilots of a flight from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas, on July 17 aborted takeoff plans after receiving an error message involving the flight computer, which reports speed, pitch and other data, according to a criminal complaint filed in US District Court in Miami. It said after returning to the gate for maintenance, a mechanic discovered a loosely connected pitot tube, which measures airspeed and connects directly to the flight computer. When Alani was interviewed, he told law enforcement officials he was upset at the stalled contract between the union and American, which he said had affected him financially, according to the complaint. Unions have complained that American is trying to outsource more maintenance jobs, a move American has said is necessary to cover increased wages.<br/>