Man Charged in Chinook Copter Sabotage

An arrest has been made in the suspected sabotage of H-47 Chinook helicopters at a Boeing plant in Pennsylvania.

Poor thing was supposedly upset over a job transfer.

An assembly line worker upset about a pending job transfer has been charged with vandalizing a military helicopter at a Boeing factory, prosecutors said Tuesday.

They said they were still trying to determine who damaged a second helicopter at the plant.

Matthew Kevin Montgomery, 33, of Trevose, cut a bundle of about 70 wires on an H-47 Chinook helicopter, U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said at a news conference.

Montgomery admitted to cutting the wires on the morning of May 10, his last day working on the Chinook line, according to an arrest affidavit. He had been a Boeing employee for 18 months.

"Regardless of what his motivation was, the impact was the same," Meehan said. The helicopter would not have been able to fly with the cut wires, investigators said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Perkin agreed Tuesday to release Montgomery on $25,000 bail; the judge ordered him to live with his parents in Southampton, undergo a mental health exam and have no contact with Boeing or its employees.

"He's very concerned and very remorseful," said public defender Mara Meehan. "He's been pretty upset, which is one reason why concerns have been raised about mental health."

I hope he is upset and gets the harshest possible punishment allowing him ample time to think about what he did.

H/T Lawhawk.

Previously.

But Let's Not Question Anyone's Patriotism

No, can't have that.

But I'll say this: It would be nice if the the scum-sucking maggots who did this were discovered by the men in the plant.

Investigators have concluded that 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 in the case.

Federal officials were handing out fliers to workers at the Boeing Rotorcraft Systems plant listing a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identity of the person or persons who vandalized the H-47 Chinook helicopters.

"We have determined that this was a deliberate act and not an accident," said Ken Maupin, resident agent in charge of the Philadelphia area office of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, at a news conference outside the plant.

A production line at the plant has not been fully functional since Tuesday when two workers found what the company called irregularities in the transport helicopters.

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.

Maupin said 10 agents were investigating the case, but he would not comment on specifics of the investigation or what led to the determination it was vandalism.

"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."

We can only hope.

Maupin said the military had not grounded any helicopters that are now in use.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said that he was comfortable with the conclusion the damage was done deliberately and that a prosecutor had been assigned to the case.

"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.

Execution would be fine by me.

Via Ace.