Company Fined after two workers fell

An aircraft engineering company has been fined after two men fell about 15 feet while they were carrying out checks at the tail of an aeroplane.

Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard that an employee of Inflite Engineering Services and an agency worker suffered broken bones after the fall at Stansted Airport on 10 June 2015.

They were working either side of the tail using mobile elevated work platforms when another employee closed the wrong circuit breaker, inadvertently opening the plane’s airbrake, which knocked over both platforms.

The men fell between 10 to 15 feet. One employee, a 62-year-old man, suffered three fractures to his pelvis, a broken back, three broken ribs, a fractured elbow and a punctured right lung. The second man, 60, suffered a broken wrist and a chipped a bone on his spine.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that no suitable risk assessment was in place and there was a lack of effective monitoring.

Today, Wednesday 15 March 2017, Inflite Engineering Limited, based a Stansted Airport, pleaded guilty to breaches under Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was fined £160,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,492.90.