News Kazakh truck driver killed in fire started by Russian rocket launch

[Nicholas Kang]

Kazakh truck driver killed in fire started by Russian rocket launch

BBC News Article: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-40285760

A Kazakh truck driver died in a fire started by the Russian-operated launch of the Progress МS-06 cargo spacecraft, generating outrage in Kazakhstan.

The driver of a truck died while extinguishing a fire that started during the drop zone stages of the rocket. The truck driver worked for Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya rocket design bureau.

Roscomos said the NPO Mashinostroyeniya oversees maintenance of the drop zones.

"The fire engulfed the Kamaz vehicle after a particularly strong gust of wind," Roscomos said in a report obtained by Russia's state-run Tass news agency.

Kazakh outlets reported the fire started about 375 miles from the launch site. Some Kazakh social media users have criticized Kazakh and Russian authorities over the incident.

 

[boogabooga]

Is this the first non-failure fatality in the long history of R-7 family?

 

[Urwumpe]

Is this the first non-failure fatality in the long history of R-7 family?

Likely the first non-failure fatality in space flight at all. I don't remember any flight successfully killing somebody. I am not sure if a person was ever directly killed by a Proton stage for example.

 

[Andy44]

Likely the first non-failure fatality in space flight at all. I don't remember any flight successfully killing somebody. I am not sure if a person was ever directly killed by a Proton stage for example.

Well, there were the guys who got asphyxiated by nitrogen in the STS program, I'm not sure there was a "failure" there, either.

In any case, if somebody gets killed, something failed somewhere. Failure of firefighting procedures or equipment? Failure to adequately prepare for problems caused by dropped stages?

 

[boogabooga]

What I mean is, is this the first time that a fatality was directly caused by a spaceflight attempt where the attempt was successful in its mission? (i.e. fatalities not related to the loss of a vehicle.)

Another way to ask the question I'm trying to get at, does this count against the safety record of the spaceflight profession, or against that of the firefighting profession?

 

[Urwumpe]

Another way to ask the question I'm trying to get at, does this count against the safety record of the spaceflight profession, or against that of the firefighting profession?

Its sure not favorable for the safety records of truck drivers.

 

[boogabooga]

They call him a "truck driver." He seems to have been an employee responsible for the booster drop zone. Was it his job to put out any brush fires that get started? Was he trained and or equipped for such a thing? That would make him a firefighter. In any case, that seems to be what he was trying to be.

Perhaps he made a very foolish mistake in intervening in a brush fire that was not really part of his job. Or perhaps he was expected to put out fires even though he was not equipped?

Anyway, BBC article plays up the Kazakh social media outrage rather than establishing clearly what the facts are.