On Wednesday, regional airline Piedmont was fined $15,625 (£12,285) by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for the death of a ground crew worker six-months earlier in a similar incident in Alabama.

  • heartlessevil@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    That doesn’t seem like a very large fine for someone dying, not to mention people might be criminally responsible. (Some reporting on this subject is written to imply that this was a suicide, but that seems unclear to me.)

    edited to add: it was revealed after this comment that it was in fact a suicide

    • brandon@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      This is actually the maximum amount OSHA can fine for a single instance. My understanding (not an expert or anything) is that these amounts are set in legislation, so OSHA can’t increase them without Congress.

    • wjs018@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      The fine is from an unrelated, earlier incident in Alabama. From what I found on jalopnik:

      Earlier this year, a worker was killed by being sucked into an airplane engine in Alabama on New Year’s Eve. The employee in that scenario was warned several times that the plane’s engines would be on, however. Still, OSHA hit the small airline Piedmont with a fine of $15,625 in the workers death.

      This incident with Delta that happened in Texas is under investigation.