105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14397368

ASPHYXIATED,GAS,TANK,RESPIRATOR

Event
ASPHYXIATED,GAS,TANK,RESPIRATOR
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14397368
Report ID
625400

Event description

EMPLOYEE ASPHYXIATED WITHIN A FUEL TANK

Investigation abstract

On January 13, 1990, an employee was preparing to repair a fuel tank on a C-5 ai rplane when he loss consciousness in about 15 seconds of entering the tank after the removal of its access panel. Other employers were not able to remove him un til approximately 15 minutes later. Their rescue was too late; he had succumbed to the lack of oxygen resulting in asphyxiation. He was wearing a respirator wit h organic cartridges. The respirator was a 3M 7800 Eastair Dual Purpose Air Puri fying with a supply of air.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 23 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    35
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Task assigned
    2

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.