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From: ewiles@netxdev.DHL.COM (Edwin Wiles)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Fatalities?
Message-ID: <3467@netxcom.DHL.COM>
Date: 31 Jan 90 18:29:15 GMT
Sender: news@netxcom.DHL.COM
Lines: 23

Recently seen in "Air&Space", February/March 1990 (reprinted w/o permission):

1981 March 19

	Two hours after a successful countdown rehersal for space shuttle
	Columbia, a Rockwell technician is killed and four others injured at
	Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39-A.  The five men had entered a
	compartment near the shuttle's engines and immediately passed out from
	hypoxia.  Unbeknownst to the technicians, the compartment was being
	purged with nitrogen -- a colorless, odorless gas -- to prevent the
	accumulation of flammable gases around the engines.  "We just don't
	know why the men were in that area while a nitrogen purg was going on,"
	said a Kennedy spokesman.  An investigation concluded that lack of
	communication among work crews led to the fatal accident.

I find this odd, because I kept a VERY good watch for news regarding the
space program, and I NEVER saw or heard anything about this until now.

Was there nothing reported in the regular news services?
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