A lot of you have written to me asking why I haven’t reported on the news that aerospace distributor AOG Technics was caught selling fake aircraft components to many major manufacturers in the industry.
Simply put, there’s no evidence AOG ever held an ISO 9001 or AS9100 certificate and as a result, there’s no overlap with the reporting mission of the Oxebridge website.
Older marketing materials published by AOG claimed that the company held ISO 9001 at some point, but all signs point to those claims being as fake as the products they later shipped to aircraft manufacturers. As reported by the mainstream press, AOG had built its sales operations via the use of fake LinkedIn profiles, so making false claims about holding ISO certificates — which it conveniently never published or produced — is on brand for them.
So while the AOG scam is a black mark on the aerospace industry as a whole — and shows just how little due diligence buyers from companies like Boeing and Airbus perform — it’s not an AS9100 scandal. And I checked.
It does not appear that AOG ever held any ISO or AS certifications, likely because the company didn’t really exist. So no accredited certification bodies can be blamed for poor oversight, in this case.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
