Winner Aviation fined for violation

A veteran airport worker was crushed between the hangar door and wall.

VIENNA — Winner Aviation Corp., a fixed-base operator at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, has been cited for having a bypass on a safety switch on a hangar door.

The bypass, according to the Occupation Health and Safety Administration, allowed the door to close April 9, killing a company employee.

The Trumbull County coroner ruled the death of Paul Wiscott, 71, of Youngstown, an accident, saying he died of head trauma.

Winner leases the hangar from the Western Reserve Port Authority that operates the airport.

Although Winner was fined $2,000, Rob Medlock, OSHA area director in Cleveland, noted that Winner didn’t install the bypass on the safety switch.

He said Friday that it can’t be determined which previous tenant installed it or when.

Mark Gisler, Winner Aviation general manager, declined to comment.

Steve Bowser, airport’s director of aviation, said the bypass has been corrected. He declined to answer any other questions because of possible litigation over the death.

Medlock said the 30-foot-high door closes in a cascade fashion. The switch must be pressed to open and close it, and the switch is designed to be held down to operate the door.

The safety feature was bypassed, Medlock said, by a large nail hanging next to the switch that could hold it down while the door was opened or closed.

“You can’t bypass electrical equipment,” he said.

The bypass enabled Wiscott, who worked at the airport for more than 40 years, to reach between the door and the hangar wall and hold down the switch to open the door.

When Wiscott took his finger off the switch while going into the hangar, the door closed on him.

Medlock said he hasn’t seen an accident like this in the 15 years as area director because people normally use the main door to get into a hangar.