OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14321087

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY

PHILADELPHIA, PA· 1986-09-11T00:00:00

Event: HEAD, ASPHYXIATED, IMPLOSION, EQUIPMENT FAILURE, CRUSHED, VACUUM VESSEL, ARM
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #815142
Employer profile: GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
Summary number: 14321087
Report ID: 317000

Event description

Employee killed when vacuum chamber implodes

Investigation abstract

Employee #1 went into a vacuum chamber testing area to look through the porthole opening in a pressurized vacuum chamber and observe the condition of a nose con e that was being tested. The 12 in. diameter glass in the porthole opening implo ded, causing Employee #1's head and one arm to be pulled into the vacuum chamber . He died of crushing head injuries and asphyxia.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 60 M

Nature of injury
2

Part of body
13

Event type
2

Source
2

Occupation code
999

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Task assigned
1

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.