Dec. 28, 2019 (UPI) — An explosion at an aircraft manufacturing plant in Wichita, Kan., left more than a dozen people injured Friday, local law enforcement officials said.
The explosion involved a 3-inch liquid nitrogen line at the Textron Aviation facility, Sedgwick County Fire Chief Daniel Wegner said. The plant is a former Beechcraft facility and is frequently called by that name locally.
The injuries ranged from minor to serious, with 11 people hospitalized.
“The plant closed or shut down for the holiday season, so the numbers that would have been here were not, so it was a skeleton crew,” Wegner said.
In addition to the injuries, the blast damaged buildings at the site used for composite manufacturing operations and experimental aircraft fabrication, The Wichita Eagle reported. NBC News reported the explosion caused part of one building to collapse.
Officials were investigating the cause of the explosion.
