OSHA cited a Boise crane company after the deadly Boise Airport hangar collapse. Now this

Last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped a Boise contractor with a citation for its involvement in the deadly collapse of a hangar under construction at the Boise Airport. OSHA proposed that Inland Crane pay over $10,000 in fines for exposing workers to hazards and failing to make sure the hangar was stable.

Now the federal regulatory agency has changed course. It agreed to drop the citation and penalty, with a few stipulations.

A spokesperson for Inland Crane told the Statesman by email on Tuesday that the settlement confirms the company’s position that its employees followed all safety protocols and were not at fault in the accident. A spokesperson for OSHA did not return a request for comment.

The hangar was just a skeleton of what was to become a standalone hangar for private jets when it collapsed on Jan. 31, 2024, killing three and injuring eight. Craig Durrant, the co-founder of Big D Builders, the Meridian company hired to build the hangar, and two young construction workers, Mario Sontay Tzi and Mariano “Alex” Coc Och, died.

Inland Crane settles with OSHA

Under its March 7 settlement with OSHA, Inland Crane must provide training to all its employees on a safety policy called “Stop Work Authority,” which empowers workers to halt work if they observe signs of structural instability.

The training must to include an explanation about how the policy would apply in such situations and a statement from the company that emphasizes employees would not face adverse actions for invoking it, according to the settlement agreement obtained by the Idaho Statesman.

The settlement also requires Inland Crane to make sure its crane operators and riggers know how to report signs of structural instability and are instructed to immediately notify the contractor in writing if they notice beams, rafters, trusses or other structural components bending.

The settlement notes that, in agreeing to it, Inland Crane does not admit that its actions caused any accident, personal injury or damages that may have occurred.

Workers can raise concerns via mobile app

David Kearns, Boise’s OSHA area director, had criticized Inland Crane for failing to remove workers from hazards at the site. He said in a phone interview with the Statesman in July that the contractor’s employees had expressed concerns before the collapse and “were very familiar with the bending and the waving” of the structure.

“In the end, they were very fortunate that they did not injure or lose any of their own workers,” Kearns said.

Inland Crane said after the collapse that it had removed three of its four mobile cranes from the site the morning of the accident at the direction of another contractor. The last remaining crane was placing an end truss when the frame abruptly collapsed in on itself later that evening. The boom, or hydraulic arm of the crane, snapped as the structure came down.

The spokesperson for Inland Crane said employees will now be able to immediately raise safety concerns with the company and project leadership through an app on their mobile devices.

“Inland Crane is proud of our employees for their safe and effective work,” Inland Crane Vice President Jeremy Haener said in a statement. “We continue to mourn our colleagues and friends lost in the incident and offer our deepest condolences to their families and loved ones.”

Meridian’s Big D Builders faces big fines

Big D Builders bore the brunt of the citations and fines issued by OSHA when the agency concluded its investigation about six months later. Officials recommended fines totaling nearly $200,000 against the company for four violations of federal safety regulations.

The U.S. Department of Labor, which includes OSHA, said in a news release in July that Big D Builders displayed an “appalling disregard of safety standards” and ignored visible warning signs during construction.

“The tragic loss and pain suffered by so many is compounded by the fact that Big D Builders could have prevented all of this from happening,” Kearns previously said. “We cannot put a value on the loss of life, but we will use all our resources to hold employers accountable when they willfully ignore safety regulations and expose workers to serious and fatal injuries.”

Big D Builders is rebuilding the hangar for the Jackson Jet Center with new designs and steel supports, despite a lawsuit from the victims’ families, the Statesman reported in January.