Textron: Initial findings in Wichita employee’s death show breathing air was compromised

Rocky Gene Baldwin died last month while working in a paint booth at Textron Aviation plant in east Wichita after the “breathing air system unintentionally allowed nitrogen to get into the system,” a company spokesperson said in a statement this week.

The 61-year-old Wichita man was found not breathing just after noon on Feb. 24 in a paint booth at Plant III, where a December 2019 nitrogen gas-line explosion sent more than a dozen workers to the hospital. Baldwin, who had been with the company 27 years, was wearing a ventilator mask. He was pronounced dead roughly 18 minutes after 911 was called.

In the statement, the Textron spokesperson said the investigations by the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration are ongoing.

“The company’s initial findings indicate that oxygen readings in certain locations of the breathing air system were below acceptable levels at the time of the incident,” the statement says. “The company’s internal investigation found the breathing air system unintentionally allowed nitrogen to get into the system, diluting the oxygen content to below acceptable levels making the air unsafe to breathe. The company is fully cooperating with Sedgwick County and OSHA and has provided internal findings to those conducting the third-party investigations.”

The spokesperson would not answer additional questions.

The sheriff’s office said it is still investigating and awaiting the autopsy and toxicology, sheriff’s office spokesperson Branden Stitt said.

Baldwin is a U.S. Army veteran who is survived by a wife, four children, three sisters and two grandchildren, according to his obituary.