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Whistleblower claims Pratt sold Air Force faulty engines
By Howard French
hfrench@journalinquirer.com Aug 20, 2018 0
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EAST HARTFORD — A former Pratt & Whitney engineer has filed a false claims lawsuit in U.S. District Court accusing the company of knowingly selling “flawed” jet engines to the U.S. Air Force, which resulted in the likelihood of premature wear in those engines or even “catastrophic failure.”
In the case, which was filed in 2016 but just recently unsealed, Peter J. Bonzani Jr., of Bolton, asserts that Pratt fired him after he brought his concerns to company officials.
Pratt issued a brief statement seeking to refute the lawsuit.
“There is absolutely no merit to these claims,” Pratt officials said in an emailed statement. “We intend to defend this case aggressively.”
According to the lawsuit, from September 2012 through November 2015, Bonzani worked as an independent contractor and later a full-time employee for Pratt in its East Hartford plant.
Bonzani had been providing “automation and thermal spray expertise and services” to Pratt when he discovered the “intentional and/or reckless conduct” that led to the use of a “flawed manufacturing process which resulted in the creation of defective engine parts for United States Air Force’s fighter jets,” the lawsuit states.
It goes on to say that Pratt “recklessly used inappropriate spray equipment and flawed test methodologies,” and deliberately manipulated test procedures in the manufacture of parts for the F119 engine used exclusively in the Pentagon’s F-22 Raptor fighter jet. Bonzani asserts that Pratt engaged in the “inappropriate” spray procedure specifically in applying the coating on the “knife edge seals used in the engine rotors.”
He goes on to claim that Pratt also used a “similarly flawed spraying process” in the manufacture of the F100 engines used in the Air Force’s F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.
The flawed process resulted in engines supplied to the Air Force that are “at risk for premature wear and possible catastrophic failure, putting pilots and others at risk,” the lawsuit adds.
Also as a result, Pratt had submitted “false claims for payment” and had made or used “false records and certifications to get claims paid” in violation of the federal False Claims Act, Bonzani asserted.
When he “advised his superiors” of the flawed spraying process and the manipulated test procedures taking place at Pratt’s plant in Middletown, and at a site in San Antonio, Texas, Bonzani said in the lawsuit, Pratt “summarily suspended and then later wrongfully terminated” him.
The lawsuit, which is filed on behalf of Bonzani and the federal government, asks the court to award the Defense Department “three times the amount of actual damages which the United States has sustained as a result of” Pratt’s conduct.
Bonzani also is asking for two times the amount of back pay he lost due to the firing in addition to interest on the back pay, legal fees, and “any and all other compensatory and special damages.”
Pratt has won billions of dollars in business over the years in jet engine business from the Defense Department, and occupies the role of sole supplier of engines for both the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.