A Boeing 737 MAX airplane is seen parked at a Boeing facility on August 13, 2019 in Renton, Washington.
- Boeing has announced that it will temporarily halt production of the 737 Max plane.
- The plane has been grounded by the FAA for almost a year following two major crashes.
- Boeing announced that it would not be making any layoffs as a result of this decision and that employees would instead be redirected to other tasks.
- However, there is now an increasing backlog of uncompleted planes that are sitting in Boeing's production line.
- Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
Photos taken at a Boeing partner factory in Wichita, Kansas shows the growing number of uncompleted 737 Max planes that are backlogged on the planemaker's production line now that the company has announced it will be suspending production of the controversial airplane model.
These planes are now sitting idle since its grounding has hit the nine-month mark. Boeing claims it now has about 400 planes in storage.
"This decision is driven by a number of factors, including the extension of certification into 2020, the uncertainty about the timing and conditions of return to service and global training approvals, and the importance of ensuring that we can prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft," Boeing said in a statement.
Boeing has about 680 suppliers and hundreds of other subcontractors working to create the 737 Max. While the company doesn't have plans to layoff any of its own employees, there is fear that furloughs will begin with the suppliers that Boeing may stop paying, Reuters reported.
This includes Spirit AeroSystems, which had enough factory workers to create 52 plane fuselages per month, and counting, prior to the 737 Max groundings. Spirit is one of the largest 737 Max suppliers.
Keep scrolling to see the grounded planes and what the effects of the production halt may have on Boeing's suppliers and the US economy:
Get the latest Boeing stock price here.