COUNTERFEITING IN AVIATION SUPPLY CHAIN, ITS CONSEQUENCES, AND BLOCK CHAIN AS A POTENTIAL SOLUTION: AN AWARENESS AND HAZARD-BASED ANALYSIS

The current focus of the Aviation Sector is on the reduction of emissions and carbon footprint through pathways such as Electric Propulsion, SAF, H2, etc. ignoring false practices like counterfeiting in the Aviation Supply Chain, which not only contributes to the proliferation of the Greenhouse Gases (GHG) but also compromises on the safety of the Aircraft. A counterfeit part or an unapproved part that goes and gets fitted in critical systems & assemblies of an aircraft is an underperforming part that will have a significant impact on the fuel burn, emissions, and safety. This paper explores how a counterfeit part is made and pushed into the Aviation Supply Chain and how some national & global actors in influential positions with vested interests in some organizations of Civil & Military Aviation at Operator, OEM, Distributor, Supplier, and Maintainer level manipulate it compromising Airworthiness & valuable lives of passengers, Civil and Military Crew, which questions the professional & organizational culture. This study focuses on defining counterfeiting, types of counterfeiting, and how a counterfeiter manages to sell a suspected unapproved part in the Aviation Supply Chain. The amount of scale, predominant parts, and the types of parts that are counterfeited are extensively researched and presented. This paper exposes the involvement and coordination of some key actors with conflict of interests of some operating & manufacturing organizations both in Civil & Military Aviation with the counterfeiters and its consequences. Also, it investigates how Blockchain addresses the issue of counterfeiting and its ability to be a potential solution for counterfeiting and protecting legitimate supply chains. A dedicated effort has been made in this paper to enhance the awareness of the public on counterfeiting in the Aviation Supply Chain and the kind of risk involved in it.