A Prosperous aircraft repair station

/in /by

You have purchased a prosperous aircraft repair station from its previous owner, continuing the operation with the same employees. One day in the shop, you observe one of your mechanics remove a data plate from an alternator and replace it with another one he removes from a drawer on his desk.

When you ask what he’s doing, he explains that they purchase alternators from a local discount auto supply shop, then replace the data plate with one showing the unit to be an FAA-approved part. He says the previous owner told them everybody knew the units were identical, but the manufacturer just charged ten times as much for a unit with the FAA-approved data plate.

The shop buys them cheap but charges the customer the manufacturer’s list price for the FAA-approved version. He states that they’ve always done that with a lot of parts, which is why the business is so lucrative.

 

Items to address/explain: 

  1. Assuming the parts are identical except for the data plate, is this action a crime?
  2. Now that you are aware of this practice, would you be committing a crime if you allow it to continue, as long as you don’t perform any of the data plates switching yourself?
  3. If the data plate switching is a crime, what are the penalties:
    1. If the part is installed on an aircraft and works OK?
    2. If the part is installed on an aircraft and fails because of a difference between the automotive and FAA-approved aircraft versions?
    3. If the failure of the part causes a fatal accident?
    4. To your business, for violations past and future?”