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Authorities have released the name of the Spirit AeroSystems employee who died Tuesday from injuries sustained after he fell 12 feet onto concrete.
The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday identified the worker as 26-year-old Matt Lyons, who sustained a skull fracture Monday after falling at Spirit, 3801 S. Oliver. Lyons, of Wichita, was rushed to Wesley Medical Center in critical condition but later died from his injuries, authorities said.
Specific details on the accident were not available Wednesday afternoon. Spirit spokesman Ken Evans on Tuesday expressed condolences to Lyons’ family, but declined further comment on the case, citing the ongoing investigation.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration spokesman Michael Moon said Wednesday that the organization is investigating Lyons’ fall but declined further details because the investigation is ongoing. OSHA has up to six months to complete an investigation and levy any fines for workplace safety violations, said Moon, who is the assistant area director for OSHA’s Wichita office. But he added that fatality investigations “can take a while.”
Lyons, who worked for Spirit for more than five years, is the company’s second Wichita employee to die in just over a year following a workplace accident, records show.
Last August, 48-year-old Jerry Milligan fell during the movement of a fuselage panel, a Spirit spokeswoman told The Eagle in August 2011. Milligan, a 24-year employee of the company, died two days later from his injuries.
Spirit was cited for improperly “guarding floor and wall openings and hole” and fined $7,000 in the Aug. 11 incident, according to an inspection report obtained from OSHA’s website.
