2013 Birmingham airport fatality

The 2013 Birmingham airport fatality was an incident which occurred in the newly-renovated terminal of the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport on March 22, 2013. One of four newly-installed "multi-user flight information displays", cabinets holding display monitors, fell forward onto four members of the Bresette family of Overland Park, Kansas during a layover in Birmingham en route from Florida.

The airport's $201 million terminal modernization opened on March 13. The display, located in the pre-security area near the Southwest Airlines ticketing counter, crashed to the floor at about 1:30 PM on March 22. Heather Bresette and four of her children were pinned underneath while her husband was uninjured. Bystanders rushed to lift the cabinet, estimated to weigh 300 to 400 pounds, off of the family as emergency officials rushed to the scene. Mrs Bresette was treated at UAB Hospital while her four children were taken to Children's Hospital. Luke Bresette, 10, was pronounced dead at 2:26 PM.

Investigation

As of April 12, 2013, no specific individual or firm had been assigned or accepted responsibility for the oversight that resulted in the tragedy.

The display cabinets were part of the architectural design provided to the Birmingham Airport Authority by KPS Group, Inc., the architects of record for the terminal modernization project. As construction managers and general contractors for the project, the joint venture of Brasfield & Gorrie and BLOC Global Services Group were contracted to perform the work.

They subcontracted the fabrication of the display cabinets to Fish Construction of Stafford, Texas, a firm specializing in airport millwork, which fabricated the cabinets as components and shipped them to Birmingham for assembly and installation. Monumental Contracting Services was originally hired by Fish Construction to perform that installation, but, in the event, Brasfield & Gorrie's own personnel completed the majority of the work.

Some discussion arose about the whether additional anchoring should be installed, and there was communication regarding the stability of the cabinets between Monumental and Fish and between B&G/Monumental and KPS Group. According to B&G, Fish indicated in their initial response to concerns raised by Monumental that the units were designed to be freestanding. According to a statement released by Fish, they were the ones that brought up concerns about anchoring the cabinets. In any case, no definitive change was made to the design documents as a result of those conversations. Brasfield & Gorrie did provide some blocking and anchors for three of the four cabinets, but not for the one that fell.

Albert Osorio, one of the bystanders who helped lift the display, told the media that it appeared to have been adhered to the wall with "liquid nails", a trade name for a caulk-like adhesive. No subsequent reference to adhesive has been reported.

In early May, the Birmingham News detailed the progress of their investigation of design and construction documents released to them by the Airport Authority. They revealed that the flight display cabinets had undergone design changes before installation, and that those changes added weight to the front panels of the cabinets and added a toe-kick, reducing the depth of the base. Brasfield & Gorrie and KPS Group both approved the shop drawings that showed those changes before the cabinets were fabricated. Additional documentation of discussions between the fabricator, installers and designers regarding stability of the cabinets and the need for anchors or bracing, has not been released to the media.

References

• Robinson, Carol (March 22, 2013) "One child dead after sign collapse at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport." The Birmingham News
• Smith, Mike D. (April 4, 2013) "Denson: Certain contractors had "serious concerns" about Birmingham airport flight displays' safety prior to fatal collapse." The Birmingham News
• Smith, Mike D. (April 11, 2013) "Flight info sign that fell at Birmingham airport was custom-built, fabricator says." The Birmingham News
• Peddy, A. Joe (April 9, 2013) "RE: Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport Authority". Report of preliminary investigation by Brasfield & Gorrie-BLOC Global
• Whitmire, Kyle (May 5, 2013) "Birmingham airport sign collapse: The making of a tragedy." The Birmingham News