Investigations

On October 10, 2012, in U.S. District Court, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Francisca Diaz, former bookkeeper of Aircraft Transparencies Repair (ATR) and Transparencies Engineering Group (TEG), was sentenced to two years of probation, ordered to pay $67,533 in restitution and perform 100 hours community service.  Ms. Diaz, along with 14 other employees of ATR and TEG, pled guilty to conspiring to sell and falsely certify to commercial aviation customers the airworthiness of aircraft cockpit windows knowing that they were not authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to certify their airworthiness.

The investigation revealed that from approximately August 2009 to August 2010, ATR's employees continued repairing aircraft cockpit windows despite ATR having had its repair station certificate revoked.  As part of the scheme, ATR/TEG purchased "as removed" aircraft cockpit windows in the open market and backdated documents, to make it appear that the windows were from ATR or TEG's inventory prior to the repair station certificate revocation.  Additionally, serial numbers on the windows that had been sent to ATR by customers were changed to disguise the source of the windows and to further make it appear that all work had been performed prior to the repair station revocation.

This investigation is being worked jointly with the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with substantial assistance from FAA.