Non-Subscriber Extract
Chinook line re-opens following suspected sabotage
By Caitlin Harrington
19 May 2008
Boeing officials re-opened the company's Pennsylvania production line for Chinook helicopters on 15 May after US government agencies ruled that only two CH-47F aircraft at the plant were damaged in an "isolated incident" suspected to have been deliberate.
The US Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and the US Army said an investigation was still under way, but they believed the damage was "confined to these two aircraft", according to a 15 May DCMA statement.
The temporary shut-down of the Chinook line from the evening of 13 May to the morning of 15 May is not expected to affect the fielding schedule for the CH-47F, according to the DCMA.
US Representative Joe Sestak, a Democrat who represents the district where the Boeing plant is located, told Jane's on 15 May that Boeing discovered cut or severed wires in one helicopter and a washer inside the sump system of another. "There is a low probability this was not deliberate," he said.
The US armed forces Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) is leading a criminal investigation to determine who tampered with the two helicopters.