Auto parts maker Takata Corp (7312.T) offered a "substantive rebuttal" to accusations by two former employees that the company carried out tests on airbags in 2004 in Michigan and found signs of defects but did not report the results to federal regulators, the New York Times reported.

The New York Times reported last week that Takata, at the center of a global vehicle recall, ordered its technicians to destroy results of tests on some of its air bags after finding cracks in the air bag inflaters.

According to a Takata statement on Wednesday, its engineers did not learn of the first incident involving an airbag with the defect until the middle of 2005. The event involved the crash of a Honda Accord in Alabama in May 2004, injuring the car's driver, New York Times reported.

"So they did not and could not perform inflater tests in 2004 in response to that accident," the newspaper quoted Takata as saying. (nyti.ms/1sGyYJR)

Reuters could not immediately verify the contents of Takata's statement.

Takata has been beset by chronic problems with defective inflators in its air bags, which can explode with excessive force and spray metal shards. The air bags, used by many leading car makers, are the focus of a U.S. regulatory probe and have prompted the recall of some 17 million cars worldwide in the past six years, and more could follow.

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