Firm fined after death of worker
A Colnbrook aviation company has been fined after a man was crushed to death while unloading baggage containers from an aircraft at Heathrow Airport.
The man worked for Dnata Limited of Poyle Road, a ground handling and cargo services provider to major airlines, at Terminal 3 on February 23 2022.
He arrived at the stand with a set of trailers to collect baggage containers from an Emirates Airbus A380 aircraft which had just arrived from Dubai.
The man moved one of the trailers under a cargo high loader – a scissor lift used to bring containers to ground level – but the high-loader operator lowered one of its two hydraulically operated platforms, holding two baggage containers, and it crushed the employee.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the operator’s visibility of the area underneath the rear of the platform was almost completely obscured.
HSE has guidance on safely using lifting equipment under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) and Dnata Limited pleaded guilty to breaches of LOLER and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
The spindle locking mechanism to secure containers on the baggage trailer being used by the employee was broken at the time of the incident, and it is thought that this prompted him to move to the other side of the trailer to attempt to operate it from that position.
Another employee had reported defects on the trailer more than two weeks before the incident and it was not removed from service, the defects were not entered into the company’s maintenance system, and it was available for use on the night of the incident without being repaired.
The company was fined £160,000 and ordered to pay £6,494.25 in costs at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 17.
The wife of the employee said: “My husband absolutely loved work.
“He called his work colleagues his second family.
“He used to be so excited to go into work.
“He used to love making tea for everyone during tea breaks and used to buy tea bags and take them into work especially for that reason.
“The future plans I had with my husband are ruined. After retirement, we were both going to go on religious pilgrimages and also holidays together, go on experiences together, enjoy the time with our children together. Now I face the rest of my life without my best friend and companion.”
His children added: “He was the rock of our whole family. He was such a happy, positive, funny, loving, supportive dad. He had an infectious personality and was loved by many in his community. His presence is greatly missed at family gatherings and events. They are no longer the same. He was a legend.
“We can no longer go to an airport without being reminded that this was a place where our father died. Each of us has had to have counselling to help us to come to terms with and process what has happened, and we were each off work for a long period of time.
However, it cannot heal the pain that we feel.”
Dnata did not have any engineering controls installed on its high-loaders, such as sensors, to detect if people were underneath raised platforms before they were lowered, or to stop the movement of platforms in these circumstances.
There were also no mandatory communication systems to inform operators that it was safe for them to lower platforms.
HSE inspector Gordon Carson said: “Although Dnata had identified a risk of employees being crushed by the platforms of highloaders, the measures it had put in place before this incident occurred failed to ensure that work in close proximity to these machines could be carried out safely.
“Numerous hazards exist during airport ground handling activities and companies providing these services should ensure their activities comply with UK health and safety legislation.”