On April 7, 2003, Gary Key, Chief Executive Officer of Key
Enterprises, Inc. (KEI) in Oilton, Oklahoma, pled guilty in U.S.
District Court, Northern District of Oklahoma, to nine counts of false
statements and one count of mail fraud. This plea was in response to a
criminal Information filed on March 5, 2003.
A joint task force investigation involving suspected unapproved
aircraft parts disclosed Key knowingly allowed KEI, a Federal Aviation
Administration Certified Repair Station, to improperly repair and
certify repair work on Pratt & Whitney (P&W) JT8D combustion chambers,
which were subsequently provided to the commercial airline industry and
the Department of Defense (DOD). NASA and other government agencies
procure these combustion chambers and other flight critical aircraft
parts from the DOD to overhaul their fleet of aircraft. Key
intentionally did not follow P&W specifications when repairing the
combustion chambers by failing to apply the proper hardened coating to
the repaired equipment. Sentencing is scheduled for August 5, 2003.
Special Agents from the NASA Office of Inspector General, the Defense
Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Postal Service Office of
Inspector General conducted this investigation. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Neal B. Kirkpatrick, Northern District of Oklahoma, Tulsa, is
handling the prosecution.
For more information on this release, please contact Joseph Kroener,
Acting Executive Officer, NASA Office of Inspector General, at (202)
358-2558.
Previous Release:
2002-092, 9/20/2002 –
Two Companies Indicted In Aircraft Parts Schemes
