Workers’ Compensation for Injured Aviation and Aerospace Employees in Oklahoma City

Common injuries covered by workers’ compensation

According to the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, the aviation and aerospace industry “directly or indirectly supports more than 67,600 workers and the production of $8.2 billion in goods and services.” That’s a lot of workers. When you have that many moving parts (and moving people), the risk of getting hurt while on the job can be pretty high. The most common injuries sustained by workers are:

• Repetitive stress injuries. Doing the same thing every day puts extra wear and tear on certain parts of the body. Whether it’s typing and clicking a mouse, or using multi-ton machinery to move and attach parts, repetitive motions can lead to injured tendons, joints and nerves.
• Bending and lifting injuries. Pick a box up, put a box down. Pick a box up, put a box down. If you aren’t given belts, or taught to lift properly, you can find that your back, shoulders and neck (not to mention your hips and legs) can seize up on you. You can also slip, herniate or rupture discs.
• Crushing injuries. Working with heavy machinery and transport vehicles increases the risk of a worker being crushed – either by the machinery, by falling objects, or in between two surfaces or objects, like a fork truck and a wall.
• Toxic exposure. Engineers, machinists, operational physiologists and mechanics work with combustible and dangerous materials all the time. Compounds like phenol formaldehyde and methylene dianiline can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin, leading to fibers irritating the lungs, or even cancer.
• Trips, slips and falls from heights. Big machines require tall ladders. Falls are the number one cause of injuries and death across almost every industry, and aviation and aerospace are no different.

While the people who work on the machinery may face more risks, flight attendants, pilots, office workers and airport workers are also entitled to workers’ compensation if they are hurt on the job. If you are hit on the head by a falling object, struck by a drink cart, slip on a wet floor, or are otherwise injured while in your cubicle or in the air, you can file a claim.

There are, however, some exceptions which may apply if you sustained serious injuries as a result of a plane crash, depending on the type of plane and what the plane was doing at the time. In these cases (which are admittedly rare) you may need to file a personal injury lawsuit to recover damages.