Alani was was arrested on September 5 and charged with “willfully damaging, destroying, disabling, or wrecking an aircraft, and attempting to do so.”
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Topline: An American Airlines mechanic was denied bail by a federal judge Wednesday for potential ties to ISIS, after he was arrested for allegedly sabotaging a plane at Miami International Airport.
- Prosecutors presented evidence in court that defendant Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani has a brother in Iraq with potential ties to ISIS, and lied about visiting him in the country in March.
- A search of Alani’s phone by prosecutors turned up a “disturbing” ISIS video of someone being shot in the head. Alani allegedly sent the video to someone along with a message that Allah should take revenge against non-Muslims, but it’s unclear if the video was texted, emailed, or transmitted with another electronic method.
- Alani was was arrested on September 5 and charged with “willfully damaging, destroying, disabling, or wrecking an aircraft, and attempting to do so,” according to the federal complaint filed against him, and could spend up to 20 years in prison. He has not been charged with a terror-related crime.
Key background: Alani, a naturalized U.S. citizen, said he sabotaged the July 17 Bahamas-bound flight because he was upset over stalled union contract negotiations. The plane had 150 people on board and aborted its takeoff after an error message alerted the pilot there was something wrong with the navigation system. Federal prosecutors claimed Alani’s tampering endangered the safety of the crew and passengers, but the mechanic’s public defenders maintained the plane had a secondary navigation system that would have prevented a crash.
