Boeing’s Ridley Park Helicopter Facility Stays Open, Seattle Jet Plants Shut Down

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Tony Britt leaves a Chinook helicopter at Boeing's Ridley Park plant. Image via David M. Warren, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Boeing Co. said Monday it is keeping its production lines open for the Osprey craft and Chinook helicopters at its Ridley Park plant, writes Joseph N. DiStefano for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

It is closing down its civilian jet airliner plants in Seattle for the next two weeks.

The Ridley Park plant has more than 4,600 workers. Those who can work from home will.

A third of the employees are on the assembly line. Others are engineers, administrators, sales and marketing staff.

Boeing is also keeping its jet aircraft works in South Carolina open, where 6,800 workers make 787 jet airliners.

Boeing has “about $10 billion in cash” on hand, despite borrowing an additional $14 billion on top of a large debt load last month. It hopes to stay solvent long enough to qualify for expected federal assistance.

A $4.6 billion yearly shareholders’ dividend has been suspended.

Collapsing sales of its 737 Max  jet airliners forced closure of its Renton, Washingon plant in January. The airliners’ control system was implicated in two lethal crashes in the last year and a half.

Leonardo Helicopters in the northeast and Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky helicopter factory in Coatesville will also stay open.

Read more about Boeing’s operations here.

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