Ministério Público Indicts Three in the TAP and Hi Fly Suspected-Unapproved-Parts Ring — 2015-2023 Scheme Faked Aeronavegabilidade Documents Under Operação Voo Cego

The Ministério Público brought formal charges against three individuals on Tuesday 27 May 2026 for running a near-decade-long scheme that diverted and sold Suspected Unapproved Parts (SUPs) to TAP Air Portugal and Madeiran wet-lease operator Hi Fly, with falsified aeronavegabilidade documentation that allowed uncertified components to be installed into operational engines and airframes. The case — Operação Voo Cego — sits with the Polícia Judiciária's economic-crime unit since the original detentions of May 2025 and counted on technical support from the Força Aérea Portuguesa for the SUP-classification work.

The Three Defendants and the Scheme

The three arguidos comprise one businessman and two aeronautical-maintenance technicians — one of them an employee of TAP Maintenance & Engineering (TAP M&E), the TAP subsidiary running the Lisbon and Porto MRO bases. The MP alleges the trio operated as a criminal organisation between 2015 and 2023, divertindo stock components from the TAP and Hi Fly maintenance bases, recycling parts without traceable maintenance histories, and forging the aeronavegabilidade documentation needed for the components to be re-introduced into certified maintenance flows. A fourth alleged participant — a British citizen of Venezuelan origin — features in the wider investigation but does not appear among the three charged.

The Safety Finding

The MP's expert assessment, supported by the Força Aérea, classified an 'elevated number' of the trafficked components as carrying medium or high safety risk. When installed in operational engines, the parts 'posed danger to the life or physical integrity of passengers and crew of the aircraft, as well as to the aircraft themselves'. The charging document does not identify specific incidents linked to in-service failures of the trafficked components, but flags that the certified-maintenance audit trail relies entirely on the supplier-document integrity that the scheme was designed to undermine.

The Charges

The arguidos face an extensive list of crimes including associação criminosa (criminal association), corrupção passiva agravada (aggravated passive corruption), peculato (peculation), burla qualificada (qualified fraud), falsificação de documento (document falsification), administração danosa (harmful administration), branqueamento de capitais (money laundering), fraude fiscal qualificada (qualified tax fraud), corrupção com prejuízo do comércio internacional, and atentado contra a segurança de transporte por ar (endangerment of air-transport safety). The trio have been in prisão preventiva for approximately one year since the May 2025 PJ operation.

The Investigation Architecture

Operação Voo Cego was opened in February 2024 under a Joint Investigation Team framework with the United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office — reflecting the cross-border nature of the trafficked-component supply chain, which the MP traces through intermediaries in the UK and the Channel Islands. The PJ ran the original buscas across the Lisbon area, the Margem Sul, Alentejo, Algarve and the interior. ANAC — the Portuguese civil-aviation authority — has been a recipient of investigative findings but is not itself a target.

What This Means for Expats — The Bottom Line

• The TAP/Hi Fly operational fleets are not currently grounded. The MP has not asked for any in-service inspections or operational suspensions; the investigation centres on historical procurement and document-falsification rather than on active in-service components.
• The TAP M&E governance file is now political. A TAP M&E employee charged with corruption and air-safety endangerment lands directly into the TAP privatisation framing window the Government opened in Q2 2026; expect parliamentary questions on internal-control and compliance arrangements at the MRO subsidiary.
• The Serious Fraud Office partnership is the precedent. Portuguese-UK Joint Investigation Teams are rare; the May 2025 search warrants relied on the SFO framework for the UK-side intermediaries. The MP's charging document signals the SFO will be a continuing party through the trial phase.
• Trial calendars remain a year-plus out. The MP's acusação opens the instrução phase, in which the defence can request additional evidentiary scrutiny before the case is sent to trial. A first-instance verdict is unlikely before mid-2027 on Portuguese criminal-procedure averages.

TAP and Hi Fly have not commented publicly on the indictment; ANAC's regulatory file on the trafficked-component traceability remains in administrative review.