An explosion at a Kansas aircraft plant resulted in nearly a dozen people being hospitalized for injuries.
Plant 3 of the Beechcraft aviation manufacturing facility in Witchita exploded on Friday morning, giving 11 people “potentially serious injuries,” Sedgwick County EMS Director John Gallagher told the Wichita Eagle. Nobody was killed in the accident.
The plant was closed down for the holidays and operating with a “skeleton crew,” according to Sedgwick County Fire Department Deputy Chief Daniel Wegner.
Photos of the aftermath show part of the plant collapsed and debris strewn across the ground around the area. A massive spout of an undetermined substance can be seen gushing from the wreckage.
Pictures of #Beechcraft explosion courtesy of Dave Barton. @KSNNews pic.twitter.com/BUwfSlTa31
— Jeff Herndon (@JeffHerndonKSN) December 27, 2019
A nitrogen leak has been contained, and the risk of chemicals to people living in the surrounding is minimal, Wegner said.
A neighbor to the plant thought the explosion was an earthquake. It happened around 8 a.m. while she was still sleeping.
“I really had assumed it was an earthquake,” she said. “The way it rattled the house, I thought, you know, that is not the typical earthquake rattle. When I opened my front door, I was just blown away.”
