15,000 fire extinguishers removed from planes

A Welsh businessman has been jailed for two-and-a-half years after he was found to have provided substandard gas for use in airline fire extinguishers. More than 15,000 fire extinguishers had to be removed from planes across the world after Eric Andrew Lyon's company Lyontech Engineering Ltd supplied impure halon gas to fire extinguisher manufacturers between 2007 and 2009. The gas is required to be 99 per cent pure but it was found Mr Lyon faked certificates and provided some halon gas which was just 60 per cent. Mr Lyon, of Oakmount House near Mold, admitted 25 fraud offences following the probe by the CAA, the European Aircraft Safety Agency and the Federal Agency in America.

Prosecutor Wyn Lloyd Jones told the court that, although Lyon admitted to the £390,000 fraud, the seriousness of the case outweighed the value. He said: "There was a substantial breach of trust. There was at the very least a real risk that public safety could have been compromised. The motive was greed and profit." Guidelines for aircraft fire extinguishers in the UK, Europe and the US have been changed to ensure a similar incident does not occur again.