When it comes to aerospace manufacturing, there are a few very common trends.
For one, supply chain delays mean market leaders like Boeing and Airbus are slowly grinding their way through massive backlogs.
Another, is that regulatory and quality issues make for a painstaking production process.
But Airbus has pointed to yet another issue that’s recently snarled productivity in one of its Canada plants and you may not have heard this one before.
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Reports say a recent break-in at an Airbus plant near Montreal left the manufacturer dealing with a tremendous headache. And it wasn’t your typical bad actor, rather, a family of raccoons that were discovered when a worker saw one climbing up the landing gear of a jet that was being produced for a customer.
The animal that was first spotted turned out to be the mother of five baby raccoons that were also in the plant. A worker boarded the plane to hunt down the critter and discovered a good deal of damage, including urine and chewed wires.
Reuters says that workers from the “overstretched assembly line” were pulled from their work to deal with the “the time-consuming task of quarantining the jet and inspecting for damage.”
They say that Airbus did confirm the raccoon presence but declined to elaborate as to whether there was further damage or delayed production because of it.
The article notes that this scenario came at a rough time for Airbus, who has been dealing with a three year backlog on deliveries it blames on supply chain issues. The company is said to have been “scrambling” to speed up production, with recent snags including things like delayed interiors – even missing engines.
As for the plane in question – which was reportedly being built for a European airline – a source says the plant workers “had to open everything back up to inspect” but that it’s now “pursuing its assembly.”
As for the animals themselves, Airbus said they were removed to “safe location.”
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