International Missile maintenance man "died trying to save others’

Press, 28 August 1978, Page 9

International Missile maintenance man "died trying to save others’

NZPA Wichita I he L nited States airman killed by leaking propellant at a nuclear missile site, died while trying to save two other workers, one of the survivors of the accident says. 1

Keith Matthews, crewi c commander at the missile i i site, said Staff-Sergeant Rob-'l ert Thomas, aged 29, ofj Philadelphia, had been at-il tempting to help two other 1 airmen flee the deadly fumes j’ when he was overcome.lt Staff Sergeant Thomas ■ was part of an eight-man it maintenance team fuelling' i the Titan II missile with their oxidiser His body was re-it covered from the silo about ;s five hours after the leak'; began. t The leak on Thursdays killed Staff Sergeant Thomas : t reportedly when his protec- ’ tive suit was breached by|( the pressurised gas. One re-; port said the man saw two 11 co-workers being sprayed; s when a safety valve broke,t and jumped down to thejt 32m inter-continental ballistic missile and tried to stop t the leak. i < The two other airmen i: were reported in critical I condition. I < Air Force workers on Fri-’r

day began dumping thou- 1 sands of litres of ammonium t hydroxide into the underground Titan II missile silo, 1 hoping to neutralise the < leaked propellant, and I yesterday pumped water into 1 the 45m deep silo. I Clouds of billowing smoke and steam rose above the < underground missile site, a’ I result of the heat created by’ ’ the chemical reaction of the ammonium hydroxide being; poured through the open silo < doors with the poisonous; 5 propellant. nitrogen; i tetroxide. i The S.A.C. spokesman in ‘ Omaha, Nebraska, called the < accident “the first major;! leak we’ve ever had,” andi said procedures being used I < to control it had not been,; used previously. j> “There’s no danger at all p to this neutralisation we’re i doing; it’s perfectly safe,”:, said the spokesman. I On Thursday, a caustic,' corrosive orange cloud of l ! nitrogen tetroxide forced!{

hundreds of nearby residents to flee for their lives. Those evacuated were ■ kept from returning as the I dumping began on Friday; but were yesterday allowed to return home. United Press International reports. Meanwhile, Kansas politicians have called for a Defence Department investigation into safetyprocedures at missile sites. The S.A.C. spokesman said! officials were not concerned I with the damage the ammo-nium-water mixture would I cause to electronic systems. I “Many of them already are! deteriorated and corroded from the spill,” he said. I The spokesman said offi-. cials had not completed disi posal plans for the liquid i wastes — especially ammonium nitrate — from the neutralisation, but “we’re going to have a lot of fertiliser to get rid of.” (Ammonium nitrate is a basic plant fertiliser.)