The exterior of London Luton Airport (Wikipedia commons)
St Albans Crown Court was told how an employee of Signature Flight Support London Luton Ltd was injured while she was opening the doors of Hangar 219 at London Luton Airport to move aircraft inside on the day of the incident (28 April 2015).
On moving one of the doors the employee became trapped causing crushing injuries, which resulted in severe brain damage.
The Health & Safety Executive’s investigation found that the company failed to conduct adequate planning or provide adequate training and written instructions.
Signature Flight Support London Luton Ltd of Hangar 63, Percival Way, London Luton Airport, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. It was fined £250,000 and ordered to pay costs of £19,483.50.
Speaking after the hearing HSE inspector Andrew McGill said: “The injured person’s family have been left devastated after this incident. Her husband gave up work to care for her daily and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Employers must provide suitable systems of work, training, information and supervision to ensure safety. If a safe system of work had been in place prior to this incident, it could have prevented the life-changing injuries sustained by the employee.”
Fatigue is common amongst the population, but particularly among those working abnormal hours, and can arise from excessive working time or poorly designed shift patterns. It is also related to workload, in that workers are more easily fatigued if their work is machine-paced, complex or monotonous.
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