A civilian employee with the Missile Defense Agency died last year after experiencing decompression sickness aboard an Air Force C-17 during a missile testing flight, an accident investigation revealed.
The Air Force released the investigation findings into the Aug. 21 incident on Friday, which disclosed the 33-year-old employee was “performing duties inherent to his role in the back of an aircraft following a test drop” at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, or JBER, “when he developed symptoms consistent with decompression sickness,” Air Mobility Command said in a press release. The name of the man was withheld from the release and the report.
“Onboard physiological technicians responded to the individual and aircrew arranged for follow-on treatment upon landing at JBER,” Air Mobility Command said. “Despite intervention efforts by qualified medical personnel, the individual's health continued to deteriorate upon arrival at the JBER emergency room, and the individual went into cardiac arrest prior to being transported to a higher echelon of care.”
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The accident investigation board determined that “decompression sickness induced by the high-altitude, unpressurized portion of the military test mission” as well as the “pre-existing and underlying medical conditions” of the employee led to his death a day later at the…
