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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (107809)	6/9/2001 12:04:44 AM
From: Broken_Clock	Respond to of 436258

Ask 'em if the lights were on!

To: Ilaine who wrote (107809)	6/9/2001 1:11:43 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 436258

>>Inquiry Source Sees Sabotage in Damage to Boeing Jets By MATTHEW PREUSCH ENTON, Wash., June 8 — As the F.B.I. continued its investigation into wire damage in airplanes under assembly at Boeing's plant here, a person familiar with the investigation said today that the frayed and cut wires on as many as 10 of its 737's were damaged deliberately in recent weeks. The F.B.I. would not comment on the investigation, which formally began on Thursday evening. The Boeing Company reported the wire damage to the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday, but has not said whether it considered the damage deliberate, calling it only "suspicious." But one person familiar with the company's internal investigation said the planes were sabotaged. "We know something happened, and we eliminated the chance that it is unintentional," the person said. While wires are often bent or stretched during production, the recent cases involved wires being damaged intentionally in a variety of ways, the person said. When bundles of suspicious-looking wires were found, the person said, "that's when we knew this was deliberate." Most of the planes in which damage was discovered have been fixed, ground-tested and flight-tested, and delivered to customers, the company has said. Outside the plant, some workers spoke of where the problems were found, and how the wires were damaged. "There's been an ongoing investigation by the company itself for several weeks now," said Eric Varga, a quality tester at the plant who has worked at Boeing for 15 years. Mr. Varga said the damage was detected during functions testing, a process in which every component, except the engines, is tested before leaving the plant. The frequency of problems with the flight control systems of several 737's in past weeks raised a red flag for the testers. Flight controls power systems like the rudders and elevators. One functions tester, Russell Pagh, said that the frequency of damage reports in recent weeks had made the damage suspicious. Mr. Varga said these recurring systems problems had led inspectors to check the wire bundles that run through the system. There, he said, they found evidence that someone had done damage: wires had been cut and then reinserted into the bundles. He did not know of the other ways that the wires had been damaged. "This isn't a case of someone nicking a wire during installation," Mr. Varga said. He said it would have been impossible for an airplane with wire damage to leave the plant, but still, he said, he does not take cutting wires lightly: every week he flies his son up from San Diego on Boeing-made aircraft. According to Boeing, most of the planes damaged have been fixed and flight-tested. Deliberately damaging an aircraft is a federal crime. Workers at the Renton plant said they would assist the F.B.I. in its investigation. "We're looking for this guy, because we all have families," Mr. Varga said. Most employees had only heard of the damage from news reports. All the employees interviewed played down as a motive any anger that employees might feel from Boeing's decision in March to move production of the fuselage of its 757's from Renton to Wichita, Kan. Duane Parker, whose father was a machinist at Boeing's Auburn plant and is a painter and union steward for the Aerospace Machinist District Lodge 751, said that employees were upset about the move, but not enough to vandalize the company's product. "No one says the company deserves it," he said of the damage. Boeing has added extra security officers to the plant.<< nytimes.com