Las Vegas Airport Suffers A Collapse

McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas suffered a serious accident Tuesday. Five workers were inside the rebar cage that was being constructed when the structure collapsed, trapping them inside. All of the workers were taken to the hospital and declared injured.

By the early afternoon, two of the workers were released from the hospital and three remained in stable condition. The collapse happened at the airport terminal where there were no paved roads and construction on the site continued while investigators tried to figure out what went wrong.

Clark County Director of Aviation Randall Walker made a statement about the collapse. “As always, safety is our primary concern at the Department of Aviation,” he said. “We do not take accidents lightly and will do everything in our power to understand the cause of this event and what steps can be taken in the future to avoid similar circumstances.”

Workers on the site that were not attached to the collapse used cranes to lift the structure to try and free their fellow workers. The construction site is to be part of the subterranean support for a roadway bridge in front of the terminal. A completed rebar structure weighs over 30,000 pounds; luckily it was not finished yet.

In February, a worker died after a construction accident at the airport terminal site. The workers who were injured in Tuesday's collapse were lucky to walk away with just injuries.