The state’s Department of Labor &Industries has cited four Boeing suppliers for workplace safety violations discovered during the department’s investigation into a fatal accident at the airplane maker’s Everett plant in 2014.
The citations’ penalties range from $200 to $11,000. Boeing itself was not cited.
Jamco America received the biggest penalty — $11,000. L&I cited it for three violations. Two of the violations are classified by the department as serious and one as general. The serious ones were for lacking procedures to protect employees while working on airbags in first class airplane seats.
In November, a Jamco mechanic, Ken Otto, was working on a faulty airbag in a 777 on the flight line at Boeing’s Everett plant when the airbag went off.
The 50-year-old was flown by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he died the next month.
A worker with Vartan Product Support, was treated on site, taken to a local hospital and released, according to Boeing.
Vartan was also cited by L&I for not properly warning the worker of the potential danger. The company corrected the issue during L&I’s inspection.
While the violation is considered serious by L&I, the penalty was $200.
Two other companies were also cited — Weber Aircraft and BE Aerospace. They were not involved in the November accident but they do similar work, and L&I routinely inspects such companies following an accident, said Tim Church, a spokesman for the department.
The citations have been delivered to the companies, which have until mid-April to appeal, he said.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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