BOISE, Idaho — You'll likely soon see more activity at the site of the collapsed hangar on Boise Airport property.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) confirms it is turning the site back over to the property owner and contractor at the end of this week.
It's been almost three months since the Jackson Jet Center hangar under construction collapsed on Jan. 31, killing three and injuring nine others.
OSHA is still investigating what happened, but the agency confirmed to KTVB on Wednesday, April 24, that it is releasing control of the wreckage to the steel contractor overseeing the project, Big D Builders, and to the owner, Jackson Jet Center.
OSHA said investigators "sufficiently documented the scene and collected enough physical evidence to turn the site over."
Enrique Serna, the attorney representing the families of Mario Sontay Tzi and Mariano Coc Och, two of the three workers who died in the collapse, anticipates filing some type of legal action.
Serna wouldn't disclose what evidence, interviews and experts have found thus far in their independent investigation, but he said interviews Boise Police conducted after the collapse provide big clues as to what could have gone wrong. KTVB previously reported on those public records, showing workers at the Jan. 31 hangar collapse had multiple concerns over construction.
"When you simply read in those documents that on Jan. 30, cables were popping and braces were coming apart, that gives you a humungous clue in engineering as to what the potential side effects are when you're trying to stand rafters that weigh over 150,000 pounds combined," Serna said.
Additionally, based on data from the National Weather Service, Serna believes the "extraordinarily high" wind gusts that day at the Boise Airport provide a "great clue" as to what happened.
"When you start reading those statements that are out there in the public records we were able to obtain from the city, it gives you an idea that something was royally wrong on Jan. 30," Serna said. "And who of the 17 or 20 players, including Big D, has more blame or not blame, or who should have been more prudent or not, and/or who was truly grossly negligent in assembling all this and getting all this and putting all this together. You will clearly find it from us in our filing when we do."
OSHA has been the only entity with control of the site of the collapse – but that is changing on Friday, April 26. That means Serna and the lawyers for the companies involved in the hangar project will have to come up with reasonable protocols for accessing the site.
Once the wreckage is turned over to Big D Builders and Jackson Jet Center, Serna said the next 30 to 45 days will be key.
"All these entities that materially participated in that project – if they want to tour the site, if they want to bring their experts, if they want to write up their liability findings, if they want to do material testing – then after this Friday, they would need to coordinate then with Big D's lawyers in order to get into the site," Serna said. "Typically what follows these types of complex matters is we plaintiffs – I represent the families of the two deceased – and whoever is representing all of the 'potential' defendants, we are in the process of stipulating to protocols: to access the site, to gather evidence, to inspect, to photograph, to take, to destroy, to do whatever. And then what we do with it."
Records show Big D Builders applied for a permit to remove and demolish all the steel and concrete at the site on West Wright Street on April 3.
The steel contractor said in its application that it will re-build the hangar using the existing building permit with changes to the structural drawings. The steel will be recycled, the concrete will be crushed and a dirt contractor will use it as fill elsewhere. The company expects the demolition to cost $4 million.
A City of Boise Building Department spokesperson told KTVB the permitting process is on hold until OSHA clears the site. The contractor will need to take out all the concrete footings and re-prep the site – it's hard to say how long that will take, the spokesperson added. The next steps are then for the contractor to go through plan modifications to update their plans.
OSHA expects to finish its complex investigation by the end of July.
Serna said the victims' families know justice is forthcoming, adding that he could take legal action before or after OSHA's investigation is complete.
"[The families] are positive, they’re good people. They are humble. However, they are missing their loved ones tremendously," Serna said, "Babies, kids without a dad, a wife without a husband, a mom without a son. And you see that played out in the two families because these two young men were truly the pillar of their family structures and they were providing for them."
KTVB’s award winning investigative team reports on local, crime, and breaking news across Idaho.
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