Ex-Boeing worker admits sabotage

A disgruntled ex-Boeing worker admitted yesterday that he disabled a nearly finished, $24 million military helicopter during his last shift on the assembly line.

Matthew Montgomery, 33, of Trevose, had applied for several transfers to other Boeing facilities, but was instead being moved to another job within the Ridley Park, Delaware County, plant. He used his work-issued wire cutters to sever about 70 electrical wires running together from the cockpit to the main body of an H-47 Chinook on May 10.

Montgomery pleaded guilty to one count of destroying property under contract to the government.

Boeing officials focused on Montgomery within a week, and he readily admitted his role in a May 19 interview.

The day Boeing officials found the severed wires, they also found a suspicious washer in the transmission of another Chinook at the plant.

No one has been charged and Montgomery is not implicated, officials said. Army investigators in federal court in Philadelphia yesterday declined to elaborate on their progress in that case.

Montgomery's crime caused more than $110,000 in direct damage and another $164,000 in related costs stemming from the plant's two-day shutdown, Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamela Foa said. The sentencing guideline range is 10 to 16 months for the lower amount. After the vandalism, there was no danger of the helicopter getting off the ground and injuring anyone.

Before Montgomery's Jan. 5 sentencing, lawyers will debate prison time and the amount of restitution he owes.

He was making $19.10 an hour after 18 months on the job. Foa would not say if he had requested the job transfers for financial or other reasons. *