An American Airlines mechanic accused of sabotaging an airplane

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Reuters

An American Airlines mechanic was accused of damaging an aircraft in July because he would have been "upset" by pending negotiations on union contracts.

The plane, with 150 people on board, was scheduled to fly from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas on July 17th.

But he stopped taking off after the pilots had received an error message regarding the flight computer.

During the inspection, a piece of foam stuck inside part of the navigation system prevented it from working.

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The suspect Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani told the police that he had tampered with the system to cause a delay or that the theft was canceled so that he could work overtime, according to a criminal complaint filed in front of a Miami court.

He had no intention of causing any damage to the aircraft or passengers, he said in an affidavit included in the complaint.

According to the complaint filed Thursday, Mr. Alani has stuck the foam inside the tube leading from the outside of the aircraft to its aerial data module, a system that reports the speed of the aircraft. 39 aircraft, its pitching and other critical flight data, according to the Miami Herald.

According to the complaint, he was upset by the contractual dispute between the union and American Airlines, which he said had affected him financially.

The mechanics' union is trying to enter into a new contract with the airline, which is outsourcing more maintenance work to reduce costs.

Last month, a federal court issued a permanent injunction against the union to prevent the union from interfering with the airline's operations.

American accuses the mechanics of illegally slowing down work during the summer, which resulted in the cancellation of flights.

Alani is scheduled to appear in federal court in Miami on Friday.