train carrying aircraft derails in Montana, USA

[jopsuk]

A train carrying Boeing 737 fueslages has derailed, with the planes ending up in a river

SUPERIOR, MONTANA -- The investigation continues into the derailment of a train near the town of Superior, Montana Thursday night.

Some of the cars carried aircraft components.

Nineteen cars on the westbound train derailed. Three of the cars contained aircraft parts and ended up in the Clark Fork River. Sources tell KING5 the parts were heading to Boeing in Renton.

Crews spent the night and into this morning cleaning up.

No one was hurt and the cause is under investigation.

 

[455driver]

The Americans do seem to have a thing about rivers and aircraft dont they!

 

[trentside]

Boeing, Boeing, Gone...

Sorry!

 

[Strathclyder]

Ouch! That's gonna be expensive!
Just out of curiosity, who was it that was hauling them? Union Pacific?

 

[DownSouth]

That route is Montana Rail Link (reporting mark MRL) which both operates their own trains and sells track access to BNSF to link between two parts of BNSF's own network.

 

[fowler9]

Oops. That is going to be expensive for someone.

 

[DownSouth]

Confirmed it was a MRL train, not a BNSF train operating on MRL tracks.

Oops. That is going to be expensive for someone.

Or for someone's insurer. This is why businesses pay premiums!

 

[fowler9]

Confirmed it was a MRL train, not a BNSF train operating on MRL tracks.

Or for someone's insurer. This is why businesses pay premiums!

Yeah mate, I worked for 10 years in insurance. It is still going to cost someone a lot of money. My best mate is an actuary, he can probably tell you who.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Wonder how long the investigation normally takes on these sorts of things.

Boeing, Boeing, Gone...

Sorry!

I'll admit it, I laughed! I'm not proud of it, but I did.

 

[starrymarkb]

Oops. That is going to be expensive for someone.

At least one has creasing at the Crown, it is repairable but very expensive job (I believe it cost about £20million for Thomson's Bent 767 at Bristol) so that'll probably be scrapped and another built in it's place. They are just empty shells so depending on damage the others may be repairable. Either way it's going to hold production up for a few days (typically a complete 737 comes off the line at Renton every day)

For those that don't know - 737 fuselage shells are built in Kansas and are then shipped by rail to Renton (near Seattle) for completion.

 

[jopsuk]

Boeing are aiming to up the construction of 737s to "rate 40" or more- that's 40 planes per month, average.

 

[fowler9]

I prefer Easyjet and Airbus to Ryanair anyway so I can't see it having any impact on me in the short term. Ha ha.

 

[WatcherZero]

Inquiry has concluded with a failure to find a direct cause for the accident but ruling out staff or trailer load as cause. Its being put down as a 'track geometry' issue possibly caused by traffic weight, i.e. repeated heavy loads had caused the rails to shift.

The accident caused 6 737 Fuselages to be written off.