In the article "Ghost Ship" (see AM December 2006, page 36) it was discussed how paperwork could make an aircraft a ghost ship. After receiving an overwhelming response to that article, I wanted to touch on smuggling, the black market and stolen aircraft.

During the boom of general aviation, mid-sixties to the late-eighties, there was a common practice of data plate swapping. Aviation salvage yards were building inventories at a fairly high rate and it seemed to rain airplanes. Aircraft that were three-years-old and started to show normal signs of corrosion were being sold for scrap. For an aircraft owner, this was a dream. For example, you cartwheeled your Baron off of your local runway during a snowstorm. Your wings were bent and the fuselage was twisted. What would you do? It would cost thousands of dollars to fix. Many people would call the salvage yard and place separate orders for two wings and a fuselage. When everything was delivered, all of the electronics and anything else that was in good shape would be removed from the crashed airplane and it would be placed into the new fuselage, after the new wings were attached. Now you have a Mr. Potato head of an airplane. Then you would take the data plate off of your wrecked aircraft and place it on the new pieced together frankenplane. This would allow the airplane to use the meticulous logbooks that you had, and will allow for a better resale.

The FAA did not really question this process, because the aircraft was airworthy and met all requirements. All of the proper signatures were acquired and there wasn’t a problem, in most cases. There were a lot of aircraft that were swapped around. But during this period, most of the aircraft that were parted out were not de-registered. This caused problems. Now there was an abundance of aircraft that did not exist, but they were still on the register. The drug trade, thieves and con men honed in on this practice. The data plates from the salvaged airplanes were being placed on other aircraft. Specifically, stolen aircraft.

An aircraft was stolen and the data plates from the non-existent aircraft were installed. This would allow the airplanes to be legally de-registered and exported out of this country. Pablo Escobar, the Colombian cocaine trafficker, was a king of this practice. He had placed many people all over the country watching and waiting for the perfect moment. His people would go into an FBO, ask them to top off the aircraft and then they would fly away. Once they knew that they were in the clear, they would fly the plane to one of their supporting shops. At this point they would swap the data plates, paint the aircraft and provide all new documentation for the ghost ship. Once the airplane had a makeover, it would be sold to his organization through fake brokers and companies. The aircraft would then be legally de-registered and exported out of the country. Once out of the country, Escobar’s companies could legally register the aircraft in their country.

For various reasons the aircraft that were stolen, de-registered, and used outside of the United States, ended up making their way back into the country. In fact it became such a big problem that all of the aircraft title insurance companies started addressing this problem in their coverage. These ghost ships were now being bought and sold within the domestic borders.

About this same time, there was an influx of military surplus hitting the market. Most of these were helicopters and trainers that had a counterpart in the civilian market. These aircraft could not be registered in a normal castigatory so; the data plates of crashed registered aircraft were placed on the military versions. This allowed them to be operated in the normal category and sold for the comparative price. Fraud was alive and well.

This problem is not just limited to the aircraft. It also happens with all parts and accessories that happen to have data plates. In a case not too long ago, there was a group that stole the parts off of a smoldering American Airlines 757. These parts were then sold to another airline. In one case, they took an engine from a 737 and sold it to a U.S.-based operator. No one knew until the engine failed and caused the airplane to crash on takeoff three years later.

Even in the computer age, ghost ships and parts will still be here for the long haul. With one keystroke, a plane can be born or retired, and when it happens, it is deliberate.

Do some research and make sure that you do not have a ghost ship or ghost parts. Make sure you know your part sources, and that all of your parts have the proper tags before you install them. Ghost parts can kill.

Mitch Muller is an owner of Rourke Aviation in Tulsa, Oklahoma and holds an A&P and private pilot certificates.