Imagine rolling into work on a Monday morning only to find your usual parking spot occupied by a commercial airliner.
Such is the life of employees at Boeing manufacturing facilities in the Seattle area, where undelivered 737 Max jets sit awaiting a software fix ― and the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval ― before they can retake the skies.
Having apparently used up all of the storage space it typically allots for the jets, Boeing is now parking them in the employee lot, according to aerial footage captured by local NBC affiliate KING 5 News at the company’s factory in Renton, Washington.
The FAA, following the lead of other international regulators, ordered the 737 Max grounded in March after 346 people died in two separate crashes of that type of plane over the course of five months.
A Boeing spokesman assured HuffPost this is all part of a deliberate, company-wide logistics plan and that the company isn’t just winging it.
“We are using resources across the Boeing enterprise during the pause in 737 MAX deliveries,” spokesman Paul Bergman said in an emailed statement, “including our facilities in Puget Sound, Boeing San Antonio and at Moses Lake” in Grant County, Washington.
Per a Bloomberg tally, Boeing is storing 500 grounded 737 Max jets at various locations around the world, including around 100 at its Renton factory. As recently as April, that facility was still producing more than 50 of the jets a month.