The labor row between Qantas engineers and management turned for the worse after the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) filed a complaint with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) on Wednesday.

The union filed the complaint over an alleged mid-air check performed. ALAEA's basis in filing the complaint is a report by an engineer that another engineer did the maintenance check while the plane was flying and the filing of paperwork by a Qantas manager before the aircraft landed in Darwin Airport on Oct. 13.

"Essentially our members have come into work and seen that the checks have been certified and signed up and the plant wasn't there yet.... That, of course, is illegal," ALAEA Federal Secretary Steve Purvinas said in a statement.

Qantas denied the union's charge.

"The investigation found that the licensed engineer carried out the administration of maintenance work in accordance with Qantas engineering policies," Qantas said in a statement.

ALAEA also wrote to Qantas to complain about misleading statements that the air carrier made. Mr Purvinas referred to Qantas attributing the grounding of seven planes beginning Monday and canceling 80 flights to the engineers' strike.

"They're saying that aircraft are being grounded because of industrial action when in actual fact, these aircraft were announced for sale in April.... We want Qantas to be honest," Mr Purvinas said.

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