Blast Hits California Aerospace Plant, 1 Dead
Few details were known on the extent of the damage or other injuries at the Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion plant in rural Santa Clara County, said Mark Sullivan, a Pratt & Whitney spokesman based in Connecticut.
The victim was a contract employee, facility spokesman Patrick Louden said. He declined to release the worker's name, pending family notification.
About 700 employees work at the plant, which makes solid rocket motors for missiles, shuttles and communications satellites.
No one was injured Aug. 7, when a huge explosion demolished a three-story building and set off a 20-acre grass fire. The nearest employee was in a remote bunker where workers seek refuge when mixing volatile fuels. Rocket-fuel mixing has been halted since that explosion, Louden said.
The facility is owned by Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies and run by a subsidiary, P&W Space Propulsion division of West Palm Beach, Fla.