Unintended Consequences

Dust Explosion in Indiana

Authors

  • Terry Hardy Great Circle Analytics

Keywords:

dust explosion, CSB, lessons learned

Abstract

 

On October 29, 2003, an aluminum dust explosion occurred at the Hayes Lemmerz International-Huntington, Inc. facility in Huntington, Indiana. One worker was killed and six others were injured in the explosion. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) investigated the accident and found that the explosion occurred in the scrap re-melting system, a system used to re-melt chips of aluminum scrap from wheel machining operations.

Author Biography

Terry Hardy, Great Circle Analytics

Terry Hardy leads efforts in system safety and software assurance at Great Circle Analytics. Mr. Hardy has over 25 years of experience and numerous publications in the areas of launch vehicles, space propulsion, cryogenics, software, safety analysis, and risk management. Prior to founding Great Circle Analytics, he led software safety and assurance efforts at Special Aerospace Services and at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; responsibilities included membership on the Constellation Safety Engineering Review Panel. Mr. Hardy also was the Principal Engineer for Reliability in FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, leading efforts to develop safety, reliability, and risk management regulations, guidance documents, and training. Mr. Hardy holds a BS degree in chemical engineering, an MS degree in chemical engineering, and an MS degree in civil engineering. He also has been certified as a Reliability Engineer, Quality Engineer, and Software Quality Engineer through the American Society for Quality.

References

U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, “Investigation Report: Aluminum Dust Explosion (1 Killed, 6 Injured), Hayes Lemmerz International-Huntington, Inc., Huntington, Indiana, October 29, 2003, Report No. 2004-01-I-IN, September 2005.

Unintended Consequences

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Published

2014-06-01

How to Cite

Hardy, T. (2014). Unintended Consequences: Dust Explosion in Indiana. Journal of System Safety, 50(2), 8. Retrieved from https://jsystemsafety.com/index.php/jss/article/view/220

Issue

Vol. 50 No. 2 (2014): Selling the Need for Safety

Section

Columns and Perspectives

Categories

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.