Warbird Information Exchange

Boeing worker pleads guilty
Philadelphia Inquirer 09/12/2008
Author: Joseph A. Slobodzian

A former sheet-metal assembler at Boeing Co.'s Delaware County helicopter plant pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to cutting part of a wiring harness on an Army Chinook helicopter because he was angry about his job assignment.

Matthew K. Montgomery, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of willfully damaging U.S. government property. The May 10 incident caused a two-day halt in production at the Boeing plant in Ridley Park and delayed completion of the $23.8 million aircraft.

U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick set sentencing for Jan. 5 and let Montgomery, of Trevose, Bucks County, remain free on unsecured $25,000 bail until sentencing.

Neither Montgomery nor his attorney, federal defender Maranna J. Meehan, would comment after the hearing at the federal courthouse in Center City.

Meehan and Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamela Foa told the judge that they still had not agreed on the financial loss Montgomery caused, which would affect his sentence.

Meehan said her view would mean that Montgomery would face a 10- to 16-month prison term under federal sentencing guidelines.

Foa said the government's estimate would carry a recommended prison term of 18 to 24 months.

Cutting through the two-inch-thick bundle of 150 electric wires running from the cockpit to the avionics of the helicopter caused $110,500 in damage, Foa said. Under its contract with the Army, Boeing had to replace the entire wiring harness rather than repair it.

Foa said Boeing also closed the plant for two days while the vandalism was investigated, which cost the defense giant $164,000.

It takes about a year to build each Chinook, a large twin-rotor helicopter the Army uses to transport troops or supplies and equipment in combat areas.

According to Foa, Montgomery had worked at the Boeing Rotorcraft Systems Division since he was hired in September 2006 and was assigned on the line assembling combat-ready versions of the CH-47F.

Unhappy with his assignment, Montgomery had been lobbying for a transfer to another area of the Rotorcraft Systems Division.

On Saturday, May 10, Foa said, Montgomery was working his last shift on the Chinook set for Sept. 1 completion.

Before ending the shift, Foa said, Montgomery took wire cutters and sliced halfway through a bundle of avionics wires.

The damage was discovered the following Monday, and Boeing and Army investigators quickly narrowed the probe to that last Saturday shift.

Foa said Montgomery was brought in for questioning on May 19 and admitted cutting the wiring.

It was not clear why Montgomery damaged the aircraft when he had obtained a transfer from the Chinook line, Foa said, and was to begin a new assignment on May 12.

Still under investigation is a second act of sabotage that day at the Boeing plant involving a Chinook helicopter in which the wrong washer was installed in a transmission.

Foa said Montgomery had nothing to do with the second incident.

Carl Russ, an agent of the Army Criminal Investigative Command, said the probe of the second incident was still active but declined to elaborate. A $10,000 reward remains for information leading to a conviction.

Ex-Boeing worker gets 10 months for copter damage
Associated Press Newswires 01/05/2009
Copyright 2008. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A former Boeing employee will spend five months in prison and five months on home confinement for vandalizing a $24 million military helicopter during his last shift on a suburban Philadelphia assembly line.

Matthew Montgomery, of Trevose, must also pay $110,000 in restitution as part of a federal sentence handed down Monday. The 33-year-old told the judge that he did not know how to deal with stress.

Montgomery, who earned $19 an hour, was apparently upset about being transferred to another job at the Ridley Township plant after applying for positions at other Boeing Co. sites.

He used his work-issued wire cutters to sever about 70 electrical wires running from the cockpit to the main body of a nearly finished H-47 Chinook on May 10.

The helicopter would not have been able to fly, so there was no risk of injury, and the damage was readily spotted by plant officials two days later. The vandalism led Boeing officials to shut down the assembly line for two days, causing additional losses.

The same week, a suspicious washer was found in a second helicopter. No one has been charged in that incident, which remains under investigation, authorities said Monday.

U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick sentenced Montgomery at the low end of the 10- to 16-month guideline range.

"Although the defendant has no prior criminal history, the defendant's crime was violent and senseless," Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Votaw wrote in a recent memo asking for a sentence within the guideline range.

Neither she nor public defender Mara Meehan immediately returned messages left by The Associated Press on Monday.

Montgomery, who has declined public comment about the case, was ordered to report to prison on Feb. 17. He pleaded guilty in September to one count of destroying property under contract to the government.