David Monroe, director of San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology at Port San Antonio, was killed in an accident at the Boeing Center while moving a jet engine Sept. 19. He’s shown here in 2021.
Kin Man Hui/Staff photographer
Federal safety regulators are investigating the accident that killed a San Antonio inventor and entrepreneur a week ago at Port San Antonio.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which tracks workplace safety incidents, this week opened an investigation into the death of David Monroe, who was killed in the incident on a loading dock at Boeing Center at Tech Port.
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According to police, the 72-year-old founder and CEO of the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology was helping a colleague move a jet engine when the dolly it was on apparently got away from them. The rolling dolly and 5,000-pound engine knocked Monroe off a 4-foot dock outside the center, then the engine fell onto him.
OSHA records show Monroe’s was the first work-related death at Port San Antonio since the agency’s online records began in 2011.
The exterior of Boeing Center at Tech Port is seen in November. An eminent inventor’s accidental death at the center last week is now under investigation by federal safety regulators.
Christopher Lee/Staff Photographer
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According to the agency’s guidelines, the museum Monroe led is responsible for a safety program to prevent accidents. It requires inspecting job sites, materials and equipment; ensuring equipment is safe; properly training employees; and providing personal protective equipment.
Industry standards also detail the importance of having trained people and the right equipment to move heavy machinery such as jet engines. Such heavy loads are supposed to be strapped down or otherwise secured when being moved.
Cliff Zintgraff, the museum’s chief learning officer and interim head, declined to comment about the accident or the museum’s safety protocols.
“We’re focused on David’s impact and legacy,” he said.
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Monroe, a prolific inventor, is credited with creating the cellphone camera. He also held key roles at Datapoint, a San Antonio company that in the 1970s helped develop an early personal computer, and won more than 50 patents covering microcomputer processors, wireless networks and other electronics.
The museum he founded has several facilities on Port San Antonio in addition to its space in the Boeing Center known as Area 21. According to Zintgraff, it’s in the process of setting up a “history center” in a former gym near the Boeing Center. He wouldn’t say where Monroe was moving the engine or which exhibit it was part of.
A Port San Antonio official referred questions about the mishap to the museum and the hospitality firm that manages the Boeing Center.
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“Legends Global is the operator of the Boeing Center, with the exception of the museum space, which is operated by the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology (SAMSAT),” Paco Felici, the port’s chief of staff and communications officer, said in an emailed response to questions. “The Kelly Heritage Foundation contracts for museum services from SAMSAT, which is the exclusive operator of the museum space (in the Boeing Center), known as Area 21.”
David Monroe, director of San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology at Port San Antonio, was killed in an accident at the Boeing Center while moving a jet engine Sept. 19. He’s shown here in 2021.
Kin Man Hui/Staff photographer
He said Legends and the museum oversee safety programs within their respective operations.
Legends declined to comment about the accident because it’s under OSHA investigation.
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Legends took over center operations when its parent, New York-based Legends Hospitality Parent Holdings LLC, acquired ASM Global, which was managing the Boeing Center at the time. The merger led to a Department of Justice lawsuit against Legends Hospitality for violating antitrust laws. It paid $3.5 million last August to settle the case. Earlier this month, the merged entity became Legends Global.
ASM Global has faced several personal injury and work-related lawsuits as well as complaints to the National Labor Relations Board.
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According to OSHA, Monroe’s is the sixth workplace fatality in the U.S. related to museums since 2013 and the first in almost three years. On Jan. 1, 2023, a worker fell through a skylight and died at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga. Several of the other museum deaths involved falls. In another, a man was killed when the World War II-era tank he was operating blew up at a gun range in Oregon.
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But the agency’s records show that has been only one other incident of a non-running jet engine injuring or killing someone in recent years. In 2009, an American Airlines worker at Los Angeles International Airport crushed a finger while moving an engine into a maintenance cradle.
The exterior of Boeing Center at Tech Port is seen in November. An eminent inventor’s accidental death at the center last week is now under investigation by federal safety regulators.
Philip Williamson/Port San Antonio
Since 2016, Port San Antonio’s tenants have had at least eight OSHA complaints or violations resulting in fines. The most recent was against StandardAero Inc., which received a $15,625 fine in 2023 for exposing workers to amputation hazards.
In 2023, Boeing Co.’s operation at the port received an OSHA complaint but no violation or fine over airborne contaminants including hexavalent chromium and crystaline silica.
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A San Antonio Police Department spokeswoman said Tuesday it had no further updates on the case.
The Museum of Science and Technology filed a report with OSHA about Monroe’s death.
The agency has six months to complete its probe, according to spokesman Juan Rodriguez. It won’t provide further updates until the investigation is complete.
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