Firm Allegedly Sold U.S. Navy Shoddy Parts

A defense contractor was charged Thursday with selling the Navy shoddy parts used to raise and lower the cables that stop jets aboard aircraft carriers.

Though the parts did not affect landings on the seven carriers on which they were used, they did cause the Navy to alter deck operations and refit the carriers, Department of Defense officials said.

Contractor David Grimaldi Jr. and his company, Grimco Pneumatic Corp. of Paterson, won a contract in 1988 to manufacture kits to upgrade certain parts in the system that raises and lowers the cables.

They are charged with making shoddy parts and then attempting to hide their failure to perform quality checks by producing fake inspection records, according to a six-count federal indictment.

Jet aircraft touch down on carrier decks at about 150 mph and come to a stop in about 100 yards after a hook on the plane’s tail snares the cable stretched across the landing area.

The bad parts caused the assembly holding the cable several inches above the flight deck to jam in the upright position, leaving personnel and vehicles to maneuver around the “shims,” said Navy investigator Mark Clookie said.

Grimaldi’s lawyer, Jerry Friedland, said his client “bears no criminal responsibility whatsoever in any of these criminal allegations.”

The only affected carrier still deployed and coping with the parts is the USS Kitty Hawk.