ATLANTA — We now have the identity of the person who was injured after an airplane tire exploded at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which also killed two others.
According to an incident report, Caleb Pline, of Griffin, was seriously injured Tuesday morning.
The tire explosion happened inside a maintenance shop, sending a piece of metal “flying like a missile.” As workers began unloading the tire, it exploded, sending a metal piece flying through the shop and hitting the workers with lethal force.
It killed Mirko Marweg, 58, of Stone Mountain and Luis Aldarondo, 37, of Newnan.
Pline remains in the hospital in critical condition.
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Delta Air Lines sent a statement, saying:
“The Delta family is heartbroken at the loss of two team members and the injury of another following an incident this morning at the Atlanta Technical Operations Maintenance facility (TOC 3). We have extended our full support to family members and colleagues during this incredibly difficult time.
“The Delta family is grateful for the quick action of first responders and medical teams on site. We are now working with local authorities and conducting a full investigation to determine what happened.”
National Aviation Analyst John Nance said airplane tires and components don’t usually explode, so the question now is about the PSI, or the amount of pressure in the tire wheel during the wheel assembly.
He said investigators will look to see if there was a defect in the wheel itself. Nance said aviation mechanics are highly trained to handle a lot of different scenarios.
“Mechanics deal with many different parts on an airplane and they’ve got manuals for everything, so if something went wrong here is was this tire or wheel assembly being serviced in a normal fashion or did something get missed on the check list?” Nances said.
The Federal Aviation Administration and OSHA are investigating the incident.
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