EVERETT — It’s been a week since two contract workers were injured on Boeing’s Paine Field flight line, but no one will say what their conditions are or what precisely happened.
An airbag in the seatbelt of a first class seat in a 777 deployed, severely injuring one of the workers, according to people familiar with the accident.
Everett firefighters and Boeing emergency responders rushed to the scene. One of the two workers was taken by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The other was treated on site, then taken to a local hospital, a Boeing spokesman said at the time.
“We aren’t providing any further details on last week’s incident,” the spokesman, Doug Alder said on Tuesday.
The Everett Fire Department also declined to provide details about the accident and referred questions to Boeing.
The contractors’ employers — Jamco America and Vartan Product Support — aren’t talking, either. Both declined to comment about how their employees are doing.
The state Department of Labor and Industries launched a workplace safety investigation, said Elaine Fischer, a spokeswoman for the department.
The Jamco worker was the more seriously injured of the two, she said.
The department is not aware of their current condition, though, Fischer said. “We haven’t been notified of a fatality.”
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is helping Boeing with its own investigation, though the union does not represent the contractors who were injured. IAM District 751 represents roughly 32,000 Boeing employees.
IAM asked to join the investigation “because we want to learn more about the seatbelts, which our members work around,” said Connie Kelliher, a District 751 spokeswoman.
Thousands of airplane seats are equipped with air bags, which are designed to decrease minor injuries in non-catastrophic accidents.
Outside suppliers make the seats for Boeing airplanes. Customers purchase the seats from the suppliers, who deliver them to Boeing’s factories, where they are installed by Boeing mechanics.
Contractors often deal with problems identified by customers after a seat is installed, said several Boeing workers.
Two accidents on Boeing’s Everett flight line in 2012 also sent workers to Harborview with serious injuries. In one, a Boeing mechanic was crushed while working on a 747. In the other accident, a Boeing employee’s legs were crushed under a 787 Dreamliner that was being towed.
In the past five years, L&I has found violations in eight workplace safety investigations at Boeing’s Everett plant. The department found violations during two investigations into Jamco. It has not investigated any issues at Vartan Product Support, according to L&I’s website.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
