Boeing technicians in Montana to review derailment
Boeing Co. has sent technicians to the site of a train derailment that dumped six 737 fuselages and other aircraft components into a Montana river as they were being transported to a Washington state assembly plant.
The accident occurred Thursday in western Montana near Rivulet, said Doug Alder, a Boeing spokesman, in an e-mailed statement. The BNSF train carrying six 737 fuselages and assemblies for 777 and 747 commercial planes was on its way to Renton, Washington, from Spirit Aerosystems Holdings Inc. in Wichita, Kansas, he said.
"We will know more once our experts have completed their inspection," Alder said. "Once we determine the extent of damage we will assess what, if any, impact there will be to production."
The narrow-body 737 is Chicago-based Boeing's most-produced commercial aircraft, and the company this week reported 490 net orders for 737s in the year's first half. Along with the six fuselages, the train was shipping fuselage panels and a lower lobe for the 777 and a flight surface for the 747.
Boeing rose 0.7 percent to $128.51 on July 3 and has declined 5.9 percent this year.
BNSF is a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
--With assistance from Julie Johnsson in Chicago.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsmanbloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2bloomberg.net Stephen West, Sylvia Wier