Photo courtesy Foreign and Commonwealth Office (flickr.com/photos/foreignoffice) A British Chinook helicopter delivers supplies to Lashkar Gah during Lord Malloch-Brown's visit to Afghanistan in Oct 2007. image:39266:3::0

After concluding that damage to two brand new Chinook CH-47F helicopters were 'deliberate acts of sabotage,' the Boeing plant near Philadelphia was shut down for two days, massive investigations were launched by the offices of US Attorney Patrick L. Meehan and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and a flyer offering a $5000.00 reward was circulated among employees after operations at the plant resumed today.

The Chinooks, which were part of a 458-unit contract with Boeing, had not yet been deployed to the field. The Chinook helicopter (pictured above) can carry over 10,000 pounds of supplies and are critical to military deployment and resupply operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They have also been vital in delivering humanitarian aid to inaccessible areas, as was the case in the aftermath of the earthquakes in Pakistan in December 2005.

Boeing officials stated they believe the problems were isolated to just the two choppers.

Boeing operates a huge facility south of Philadelphia and employs over 5,200 workers.

There have been other more recent deliberate acts of sabotage and vandalism to military facilities and recruiting offices, such as the 'bike bombing' of the Army recruiting office in Times Square in March, and the pouring of concrete on railroad tracks outside the military base in Olympia, Washington last November, but these appear to be the first incidents to have occurred from within a major defense contractor like Boeing.