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DoD: Chinook helicopters at Pa. plant vandalized
2008-05-15
Two military helicopters were vandalized on the production line at a Boeing factory near Philadelphia, the Defense Department said Thursday as it offered a reward. Federal officials handed out fliers to workers at the Boeing Rotorcraft Systems plant listing a $5,000 reward for information leading to whomever damaged the two H-47 Chinook helicopters. "We have determined that this was a deliberate act and not an accident," said Ken Maupin, an agent with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, at a news conference outside the plant. He said 10 agents were investigating, but he would not comment on specifics or what led to the determination that it was vandalism. The Chinook is the Army's workhorse aircraft and is used to move troops and supplies. Boeing is producing new Chinooks for the Army, as well as updating older models. The military has not grounded any helicopters now in use. A production line at the plant has not been fully functional since Tuesday, when two workers found what the company called irregularities in the helicopters. There are no surveillance cameras on the production line, said Jack Satterfield, a company spokesman. U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak has said he was told that broken or severed wires were found in one helicopter and that a suspicious washer was found in a second. Maupin described the washer as being in a place it shouldn't. "You have a large number of workers here at this point and one or more that was the problem," Maupin said. "The majority of the people here are hardworking, loyal Americans, and many of them are veterans. They want to find (those responsible) as much as we do." U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said he was comfortable with the conclusion the damage was done deliberately. "There are federal statutes that would implicate anybody who intentionally interfered with a mechanism like this that is being introduced into a theater of war," Meehan said. Boeing had no comment about the investigators' determination and will release no information about what was found, Satterfield said. "We're leaving that to the investigative agencies," he said. John DeFrancisco, president of United Auto Workers 1069, said that the factory's 5,200 workers take pride in making aircraft for the military and that he believed information would surface about what happened even without a reward. "We're very, very concerned and we're very, very upset," DeFrancisco said. "We're upset that, if this is deliberate, it affects all of us." ___ Associated Press writer Kimberly Hefling in Washington contributed to this report.
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