‘I have no answers over why my husband died’
Wife of cargo worker who fell at Dublin Airport tells court of agony
THE widow of a man who died after falling five metres while working at Dublin Airport has told a court she has been left with no answers about his death.
Richard Gracey, 64, was unloading cargo from a plane on November 24, 2018, when he fell headfirst to the ground and suffered fatal injuries.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the main deck loader, a moving platform for unloading cargo, was 2.7 metres away from the aircraft door when Mr Gracey fell and that this gap should have been no more than three inches.
Swissport Ireland Limited was yesterday fined €250,000 after it admitted failing to ensure the safety and welfare of workers on the morning in question.
Kirsten Brooks, an authorised representative of Swissport Ireland, further pleaded guilty to failing to provide adequate fall prevention measures in relation to the offloading of a cargo plane.
Judge Martin Nolan said if the loader had been flush to the plane, as it should have been, the fatal accident would not have happened. The court heard there was a failure to police safety measures that would usually be in place.
An inspector for the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) said that while it was not industry standard for staff to be harnessed while unloading cargo, she said this should be reconsidered.
Mr Gracey’s daughter Laura read a victim impact statement prepared by her mother, Therese Gracey, describing the debilitating grief, anger and sadness she and her family suffered.
Mrs Gracey, of Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, said her husband loved his job and was ‘so meticulous and safety-conscious in every aspect of his work’. She said he often came home from work disheartened ‘because of difficulty with machinery’ and described the situation at his workplace as ‘accidents waiting to happen’.
Mrs Gracey said she learned only four years later in a courtroom of her husband’s ‘total innocence’ of what happened and that she has been left with more questions.
‘No words can explain or conjure up such an immense loss of such a solid presence in my home and in my heart,’ wrote Mrs Gracey, adding that it pains her to watch her children struggling with the awful trauma of losing their father in such a terrible way.
Solicitors for the Gracey family issued a statement calling for a change in policy so that families can get more detailed information about the circumstances of the death of a loved one in the workplace and not have to wait until the conclusion of a prosecution.
Addressing the Gracey family, Judge Martin Nolan thanked them for submitting their statements, which he said described their huge loss, grief and devastation.
He noted that while his court has imposed a fine to punish the company, the issue of compensation to the family is being dealt with by another court.
The court heard Mr Gracey had worked with Swissport Ireland since April 2005 and, at the time of the accident, was engaged in training with another colleague.
Mr Gracey and six other employees had been working on the unloading of an Air France cargo Boeing 777 which had flown in from Chicago.
HSA inspector Mairéad Wall said Mr Gracey had been carrying out two roles on the day, of team leader and trainer, when he fell five metres from the main cargo deck door of the aircraft.
‘We don’t know exactly how he fell or what happened at that moment, but he fell headfirst onto the tarmac,’ Ms Wall told prosecuting counsel Sinéad McMullen. Ms Wall said a yellow safety net that served as a visual warning was also not attached correctly to the main cargo deck door, with only three hook points connected out of four.
Swissport Ireland, which provides airport ground, lounge hospitality and cargo handling services, has no previous convictions. Ms Wall agreed with defence counsel Remy Farrell that Swissport had co-operated with the Garda investigation at all times and implemented substantial training.
Mr Farrell offered his sincere condolences to the Gracey family on behalf of Swissport and said that although the company had a health and safety system in place, it was not policed on the day. The court heard Swissport took immediate remedial steps to review operating standards and procedures and had provided all relevant documentation to the court.
The court heard that Swissport has a good record, was fully insured and has a significant turnover. The maximum fine that could have been imposed was €3million, the court heard.
‘We don’t know how he fell’