I've been charging oxygen systems using both Gaseous and Liquid oxygen for about 19 years now, to be perfectly honest this is the first time i've heard of a serious incident whilst charging. I'm not saying that there haven't been any during that time , it's just that I haven't heard of or noticed them. I am intrigued to know what caused this unfortunate accident. Several possible causes instantly spring to mind; Grease on the fittings or tools being used, Failure of a component in the system alowing gas to escape, a spark caused by static or metals rubbing/banging together, dare i say it... Over pressurisation causing a failure ? I hope the Guys make a full recovery and also we gett to know the outcome of any investigation to try to prevent it happening again.
In a similar Vein;
I often cringe when i see fuel being drained or decanted from an aircraft fuel tank or container. Two incidents that spring to mind are:
1) Fuel being drained from an RAF Pembroke at RAF Wildenrath in the 80's, I believe that there was no bonding lead being used and a spark ignited the fuel vapour severely damaging or destroying the A/C and the building.
2) at KAAB Dhahran Saudi Arabia 1999. An F-15 was being drained of the last few gallons of fuel in the brand new ( but Un-ciommisioned) Fuel Shop Hangar. The guy doing the job forgot to attach the bonding lead, he remembered part way through the operation. As he tried to attach the Bonding lead to the A/C a spark jumped and 'Flashed' the fuel vapour, as the Technician (a Saudi Military guy) jumped out of the way he fell & knocked over the draining bucket containing fuel. You can imagine what happened next..... The resultant fire completely destroyed the brand new f-15 A/C and the building !!! as well as badly injuring the technician. I know this to be true as I was actually watching the firemen battling to put out the blaze.
It is also alledged that the Brand new Purpose built Fuel shop/Hangar had a state of the art fire detetection and suppressant sytem installed, however they had been having so many bugs and false alarms it had been turned off !!!
It's often a dangerous world we all work in - be carefull and lucky now.