Opinion ID: 746430
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Bearing Seal Scheme

Text: 5 Pratt & Whitney (Pratt) manufactures JT9D jet engines commonly used on wide-bodied passenger jet aircraft. Due to internal wear, the bearing seals on JT9D engines require periodic repair. The repair consists of removing knife-edges from the bearing seal and welding on new knife-edges using welding wire. Pratt's repair manuals mandated that welding wire Inconel 901 be used for the repair. 6 In 1986, when attempting to use Inconel 901 to repair bearing seals, CRT experienced a proliferation of cracks in the replacement knife-edges. Apparently, CRT possessed neither the technology nor the expertise to repair the bearing seals using Inconel 901. Rather than forgo the business, Gabriel directed Jeffrey Thyssen, 1 the CRT employee in charge of the welding, to use Hastelloy W welding wire instead of Inconel 901. Hastelloy W is softer than Inconel 901 and easier to work with. Although Thyssen informed Gabriel that Pratt's repair manual mandated that Inconel 901 be used for the repair, Gabriel nevertheless directed Thyssen to use Hastelloy W. 7 From 1986 to 1989, CRT repaired approximately 645 bearing seals with Hastelloy W. CRT returned the bearing seals to its customers with packing slips that falsely stated that the bearing seals had been repaired in accordance with Pratt's specifications. 8 In the summer of 1989, Air India was testing engines that CRT had repaired and five bearing seals failed. Air India sent the failed bearing seals to CRT and to Pratt for a determination why the seals had failed. Pratt's tests revealed that the seals had failed because of the improper use of Hastelloy W. 9 Aware that the improper use of Hastelloy W either had been or would be discovered, Gabriel and other CRT officials devised a plan to conceal the use of Hastelloy W. They decided to claim that Hastelloy W had been used accidentally and only to repair a limited number of seals, rather than disclosing that more than 600 other seals also had been repaired with Hastelloy W. In furtherance of this cover-up, Gabriel ordered the preparation of a back-dated document that falsely stated that it was CRT's standard procedure to use Inconel 901 for the bearing seal repair. This document was placed in CRT's files. 10 CRT eventually entered into settlement negotiations with Air India over the failed bearing seals. During those negotiations, in an attempt to obtain more favorable settlements, Gabriel and Vitti falsely represented to Air India via fax that Hastelloy W had been used accidentally. CRT and Air India eventually settled their disputes. 11 Based on the above, the jury found that (1) Gabriel committed mail fraud, because he misrepresented the nature of the bearing seal repairs to CRT's customers, some of whom paid CRT through the mails; (2) Gabriel and Vitti committed wire fraud based on the fax sent during settlement negotiations with Air India; and (3) Gabriel made false statements within the jurisdiction of the FAA, because the back-dated document that Gabriel ordered prepared was maintained in CRT's files, which were subject to FAA inspection. Vitti was acquitted on the false statements count. 12 According to the record, although hundreds of bearing seals were repaired with Hastelloy W and those bearing seals flew many hours, Air India is the only airline to experience any problems with these bearing seals. Moreover, we understand that by now all the improperly repaired bearing seals have been replaced, and that it is highly unlikely that the bearing seal scheme presents any continuing threat to air travelers.