NASA APPOINTS BOARD TO INVESTIGATE FATALITY AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

March 23, 2006

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-4769

Bruce Buckingham
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(321) 867-2468

RELEASE: M06-049

NASA APPOINTS BOARD TO INVESTIGATE FATALITY AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

NASA formed an investigation board this week at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center, Fla., to review the circumstances surrounding the death of a
construction worker who fell off a building at the center.

The functions of the five-member investigation board include examining
the facts surrounding the incident, gathering evidence, determining
probable cause and recommending corrective actions. A final report is
expected in about one month.

Chairing the board is John Casper, manager of the Space Shuttle
Management Integration and Planning Office at NASA's Johnson Space
Center in Houston. Casper is a veteran astronaut who flew on four
space shuttle missions. He has also served as director of Safety,
Reliability and Quality Assurance at Johnson. In addition to the five
voting members, the board is also supported by a number of NASA
advisers and administrative support staff.

In the early afternoon of March 17, Steven Owens, a 46-year-old
employee of Oneida Construction, was performing roof repairs at a
warehouse when he fell about 16 feet. Emergency personnel were called
to the site, and he was airlifted to a hospital in Orlando, Fla.,
where he died that same day. Owens was part of a roofing crew working
on a warehouse located behind the Kennedy headquarters building in
the center's industrial area. Oneida Construction is a subcontractor
to Space Gateway Services, Kennedy's base operations contractor.

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home


-end-


--
--------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl

He must have been damned unlucky
I've fallen further than that and walked away from it, albeit winded and
bruised!

Brian
--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"Jacques van Oene" wrote in message
. ..
March 23, 2006

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-4769

Bruce Buckingham
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(321) 867-2468

RELEASE: M06-049

NASA APPOINTS BOARD TO INVESTIGATE FATALITY AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

NASA formed an investigation board this week at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center, Fla., to review the circumstances surrounding the death of a
construction worker who fell off a building at the center.

The functions of the five-member investigation board include examining
the facts surrounding the incident, gathering evidence, determining
probable cause and recommending corrective actions. A final report is
expected in about one month.

Chairing the board is John Casper, manager of the Space Shuttle
Management Integration and Planning Office at NASA's Johnson Space
Center in Houston. Casper is a veteran astronaut who flew on four
space shuttle missions. He has also served as director of Safety,
Reliability and Quality Assurance at Johnson. In addition to the five
voting members, the board is also supported by a number of NASA
advisers and administrative support staff.

In the early afternoon of March 17, Steven Owens, a 46-year-old
employee of Oneida Construction, was performing roof repairs at a
warehouse when he fell about 16 feet. Emergency personnel were called
to the site, and he was airlifted to a hospital in Orlando, Fla.,
where he died that same day. Owens was part of a roofing crew working
on a warehouse located behind the Kennedy headquarters building in
the center's industrial area. Oneida Construction is a subcontractor
to Space Gateway Services, Kennedy's base operations contractor.

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home


-end-


--
--------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl

my 65 year old mom fell nearly that far off a porch when the railing
came lose in a wind storm. I called 911, and by the time I got to her
she said help me up lets go on the cruise. She was sore and bruised,
but enjoyed her 1 week cruise. It helped her traveling companion
happened to be a nurse.

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
He must have been damned unlucky
I've fallen further than that and walked away from it, albeit winded and
bruised!

And he is an unfortunate reminder that there are people other than
astronauts who have died while directly or indirectly working on the space
program.

Is it typical for NASA to appoint astronauts to investigate the death of
construction workers?

Why isn't OSHA responsible for this investigation - seems it would fall
under their charter, not NASA's charter.


JD

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
He must have been damned unlucky
I've fallen further than that and walked away from it, albeit winded and
bruised!

And he is an unfortunate reminder that there are people other than
astronauts who have died while directly or indirectly working on the space
program.

Is it typical for NASA to appoint astronauts to investigate the death of
construction workers?

Why isn't OSHA responsible for this investigation - seems it would fall
under their charter, not NASA's charter.


JD

I think the reason is that Kennedy Space Center is based on the
Canaveral Air Force Station, and the civilian organisation do not have
free access to the accident area.

André

--
73' André, PE1PQX
Mijn site: http://pe1pqx.dyndns.org

Jeff Findley wrote:
"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
He must have been damned unlucky
I've fallen further than that and walked away from it, albeit winded and
bruised!

And he is an unfortunate reminder that there are people other than
astronauts who have died while directly or indirectly working on the space
program.

Jeff

Some of those are listed in the Wikipedia article, "List of Space
Disasters - Ground crew fatalities":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_disasters

-Rusty

André; "PE1PQX" wrote in message
...
"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
He must have been damned unlucky
I've fallen further than that and walked away from it, albeit winded
and
bruised!

And he is an unfortunate reminder that there are people other than
astronauts who have died while directly or indirectly working on the
space
program.

Is it typical for NASA to appoint astronauts to investigate the death of
construction workers?

Why isn't OSHA responsible for this investigation - seems it would fall
under their charter, not NASA's charter.


JD

I think the reason is that Kennedy Space Center is based on the
Canaveral Air Force Station, and the civilian organisation do not have
free access to the accident area.


No, Kennedy Space Center is pretty much on Merrit Island and not part of
CCAF.

However, it's a government agency and as such I don't believe OSHA has
jurisdiction. (Much like the FAA does not over governmental agencies.)


André

--
73' André, PE1PQX
Mijn site: http://pe1pqx.dyndns.org

André; "PE1PQX" wrote in message
...
"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
He must have been damned unlucky
I've fallen further than that and walked away from it, albeit winded and
bruised!

And he is an unfortunate reminder that there are people other than
astronauts who have died while directly or indirectly working on the space
program.

Is it typical for NASA to appoint astronauts to investigate the death of
construction workers?

Why isn't OSHA responsible for this investigation - seems it would fall
under their charter, not NASA's charter.


JD

I think the reason is that Kennedy Space Center is based on the
Canaveral Air Force Station, and the civilian organisation do not have
free access to the accident area.


No, Kennedy Space Center is pretty much on Merrit Island and not part of
CCAF.

However, it's a government agency and as such I don't believe OSHA has
jurisdiction. (Much like the FAA does not over governmental agencies.)


I was close with my thought; government ground....

As far as I know here in Holland the government and the civilian
agencies work close together, a couple of years ago a C-130 Hercules
(military) plane crashed with casualties, and the civilian safetyboard
and the military investigators came with a combined accident report.
Among the pasengers, a civilian music band was on board.....

André
André

--
73' André, PE1PQX
Mijn site: http://pe1pqx.dyndns.org

--
73' André, PE1PQX
Mijn site: http://pe1pqx.dyndns.org