104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14555072

ELECTRIC ARC,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,VENTING,CLEANING,EXPLOSION,JET FUEL,TANK

Event
ELECTRIC ARC,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,VENTING,CLEANING,EXPLOSION,JET FUEL,TANK
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14555072
Report ID
931800

Event description

JET FUEL TANKS IN TESTING DEVICE EXPLODED

Investigation abstract

THE THREE EMPLOYEES WERE PREPARING A UNIT TESTING DEVICE CONSISTING OF FUEL COMP OUT GAS FREEING AND TESTING, AND WITHOUT A POSITIVE DETERMINATION THAT ALL ELECT RICAL CIRCUITS WERE DEENERGIZED AND THAT WORKERS WERE NOT WEARING SYNTHETIC TYPE CLOTHING. THE RELATIVE HUMIDITY WAS 23% AT 80 DEGREES FARENHEIT. A SPARK, MOST LIKELY FROM AN ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT (28 VOLTS) TO A PRESSURE SWITCH, PROBABLY IGNI TED THE VAPORS. CAUSE OF ACCIDENT: SOP WAS NOT FOLLOWED OR ENFORCED. ARTMENTS WITH INTERNAL FUEL PIPING AND SWITCHING DEVICES. THE COMPARTMENTS CONTA INED RESIDUAL JP-4 JET FUEL, WITH AN LEL OF .8% BY VOLUME AND A FLASH POINT OF - 4% F. WRITTEN SOP INSTRUCTIONS PRESCRIBED CLEANING AND VENTING TO REDUCE THE VAP ORS TO LESS THAN 10% OF THE LEL. GAS FREEING WAS TO BE DONE AFTER ALL ELECTRICAL POWER AND ALL OTHER SOURCES OF IGNITION WERE REMOVED FROM THE UNIT AND SURROUND ING AREA. NO SYNTHETIC CLOTHING MATERIALS WAS TO BE ALLOWED IN THE WORK AREA. AL SO, CHECK LISTS WERE TO BE COMPLETED FOR ALL THE ABOVE, PLUS TESTING WAS TO BE A CCOMPLISHED WITH A COMBUSTIBLE GAS INDICATOR. WORK WAS PERMITTED TO PROCEED WITH

Victims (3)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 58 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    2
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    17
    Environmental factor
    10
    Task assigned
    1

  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 35 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    6
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    17
    Environmental factor
    10
    Task assigned
    1

  3. #3 Hospitalized Age 30 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    2
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    17
    Environmental factor
    10
    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.

← Back to accident search