TWO aerospace firms have been fined £75,000 after a worker was crushed to death and another seriously injured under 2.8 tonnes of steel.

Allan Sanderson and Gerald Powderley were injured while pushing a trolley into an industrial oven at the India Mill Business Centre in Bolton Road, Darwen, with three other colleagues.

A panel on a walkway collapsed and the trolley toppled metal girders and tools on to the two men.

Both workers at Brookhouse Patterns suffered major injuries. Mr Sanderson, 50, a father of two and grandfather from Rishton, died in hospital the next day from chest injuries.

Mr Powderley, 63, from Blackburn, suffered severe injuries and is still undergoing treatment two years on. He broke both his legs, his right foot and ankle, and needed skin grafts to his legs.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the owner of the factory, Brookhouse Composites Ltd, and Mr Sanderson’s employer, Brookhouse Tooling Ltd, who both admitted putting worker’s lives at risk.

After the sentencing at Preston Crown Court, Mr Sanderson’s widow Lorraine, said: “I find it difficult coming to terms with the fact that Allan went to work one day but never came home.

“I met him when I was 16 and we had been married for 29 years. He was my world and my life, which revolved around him and our two children.

“The past two years have been surreal. I feel I’m stuck in a bubble that when it pops everything is going to be alright, but then reality strikes and I know my life will never be the same again.

“I’ve lost my husband and our two children have lost their dad but I also feel Allan was cheated out of the life he wanted to live. Our little family unit that we worked on for 29 years is gone forever.”

Preston Crown Court heard of a string of failings leading up to the incident at 10am on December 17, 2008, including: • The trolley was not wide enough to fit on both the load-bearing rails inside a gas-fired pressure vessel.

• Instead the wheels on the right hand side were rolled on a pedestrian walkway not intended to carry such weight.

• A panel had bent, but was turned upside down, straightened and re-welded by Brookhouse Tooling in November 2008, but collapsed in the incident.

Brookhouse Composites and Brookhouse Tooling are now trading as Kaman Composites UK and Kaman Tooling and were fined £50,000 and £25,000 respectively, both paying £35,000 in costs.

The family of Mr Sanderson have already settled on an out of court civil compensation claim.

John Cooper, defending, said everyone at the firms wanted to express their sincere regret and sorrow.

Risk assessment had now been reviewed throughout the business, he said.