A person severely injured in an incident at Delta Air Lines’ maintenance center in Atlanta on Tuesday was identified Thursday as a Griffin resident.
Two workers died and Griffin resident Caleb Pline was badly hurt in an explosion while aircraft maintenance work was being done, according to an incident report released Thursday afternoon. Pline was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital by emergency crews and has been hospitalized since the incident.
The two people who were killed in the explosion were earlier identified as Mirko Marweg, 58, who lived in Stone Mountain, and Luis Aldarondo, 37, who lived in Newnan.
Marweg served in the U.S. Air Force for four years and started working for Delta in 2004, Delta TechOps President John Laughter said in a memo to workers.
Known as “Mirk,” Marweg had a wife and four children, was a fan of the Mississippi State Bulldogs and “took pride in his family’s multigenerational history of military service to our nation,” according to the memo.
Aldarondo joined Delta in 2019, left during the pandemic and returned to the company last December. He often arranged team activities, had a partner and two children and “loved his family deeply,” according to Laughter.
“Leaders and our HR team remain in close contact with family members to support them in any way we can,” Laughter wrote.
The incident occurred at Delta’s wheel and brake shop at its massive TechOps maintenance center near the international terminal of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Atlanta firefighters and police responded to the scene on Maynard H. Jackson Jr. Boulevard after 5 a.m. The explosion occurred while aircraft wheel components were being disassembled for maintenance in the shop. The wheel was not attached to a plane at the time, according to Delta.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it is investigating. Delta said it is working with authorities.
The wheel and brake shop is a specialty shop inside Delta TechOps, which is the airline’s aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul operation.
In the shop, work is done for planned maintenance of Delta’s fleet of planes. Wheel and brake assemblies may be removed from aircraft when they arrive at a hangar and undergo planned maintenance work, according to Delta.
“We are committed to sharing and addressing any significant findings to prevent an incident like this from ever happening again,” Laughter wrote in his memo.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include information contained in a Delta memo to employees.
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