Worker dies after airport construction site accident

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A contract worker has died after a construction site accident at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, a spokesman said.

The incident, which has prompted the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to investigate, is the second fatality on the construction site of the planned terminal in two years.

Edgar Rieffel, who worked for D.H. Pace Co., died as a result of the accident, which happened at the Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal around 5:20 p.m. Thursday, airport spokesman Al Snedeker said.

About 1,100 workers are part of the international terminal construction project, Snedeker said.

Rieffel was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital to be treated for his injuries but died a few hours later.

OSHA officials are at the airport to begin their investigation.

No further details were available early Friday afternoon.

East Point resident Mack Pitts died in June 2007 after he was run over by a dump truck at the construction site of the new terminal. His death was the first accidental one at Hartsfield since 1999 and the second at the airport in almost 20 years.

An Atlantic Southeast Airlines employee was killed instantly when he was struck by the propeller of a taxiing airplane in 1997. Seven years earlier, an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 jetliner collided with a small private plane on a runway, killing the pilot when the wing clipped off the top of the smaller plane.

The $1.35 billion international concourse is expected to open in two years, airport officials said recently. Its main tenant will be Delta Air Lines. Delta has agreed to help the city seek bond financing for the terminal.

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