(WICHITA, Kan.)—
A second death at Spirit AeroSystems prompts a Wichita family to speak out.Twenty-six year-old Matt Lyons of Wichita fell about 12 feet onto concrete at the plant Monday.
It comes about a year after worker Jerry Milligan fell to his death doing a similar job.
“Life completely changed just then in an instant,” says Jerry's wife, Roseanne Milligan.
Roseanne and her daughter Samantha don’t have many details about Jerry's death. Now they learn another man has died doing a similar job.
“It's sickening...it just grieves me to think about everything we've felt and experienced… that another family is going to do that same thing,” says Roseanne in tears.
“When I found out I was infuriated...the first thing that came to my mind was my dad died in vain,” adds Samantha.
The company isn't providing details, but Frank Molina with the Wichita Machinists Union described to us what officials believe happened in both cases.
He says both men somehow fell to a lower level through a retractable floor that surrounds the fuselage. In both cases the floor may have been retracted because parts were being moved into position.
Once again, he says the union is reviewing safety procedures.
“This is very upsetting. We thought we did a lot of refresher with the employees… this coming again is just horrible,” says Molina.
Jerry Milligan’s family agrees.
“We'd hoped that even though we couldn't change the outcome for Jerry that it could save someone else,” says Roseanne.
“People are going to get hurt with the type of work we’re doing, but the major things like this shouldn't be happening and we’re going to do our best to prevent it from happening in the future,” says Molina.
Molina says the union safety team has met with company officials and has been reviewing safety procedures. OSHA has also opened an investigation.
