The engineers' union has lodged a complaint with the civil aviation watchdog that a Qantas manager checked an jet engine while it was still flying.
The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) has filed a complaint with Qantas and with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) over the incident, which they say occurred at Darwin airport on October 13.
Qantas says it rejects the allegation, and that its investigation found the engineer carried out maintenance properly.
Engineers have also written to the airline asking them to stop making "misleading statements'' about the ongoing dispute, ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas said today.
Engineers lodged a complaint after they discovered a Qantas manager filed paperwork on a plane before it had even landed, Mr Purvinas said.
"Essentially our members have come into work and seen that the checks have been certified and signed up and the plane wasn't there yet.
"That, of course, is illegal.''
But Qantas has rejected the claims.
"Qantas received a complaint by a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer against another licensed engineer which was investigated in the normal manner,'' the airline said in a statement.
"The investigation found that the licensed engineer carried out the administration of maintenance work in accordance with Qantas engineering policies.''
The union also wrote to Qantas on Tuesday night asking it to "cease and desist'' from making misleading statements on the ongoing engineers' dispute.
"We've written to Qantas overnight and complained about the misleading statements they've been making to the public,'' Mr Purvinas said.
Yesterday Qantas said that two Boeing 767 aircraft would be grounded from Monday, which would cause the cancellation of 80 flights, mainly between the eastern states and Perth.
That takes the number of aircraft taken out of service by Qantas to seven, and the number of flights cancelled as a result to about 500, the airline said.
A ban on overtime by the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) had forced the grounding of the aircraft, the airline's CEO Alan Joyce said.
But ALAEA has said some of these aircraft were actually put up for sale last April.
"They're saying that aircraft are being grounded because of industrial action when in actual fact, these aircraft were announced for sale in April,'' Mr Purvinas said.
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