Worker at Tampa International Airport tried to escape excavator before fatal fall, report says

A construction worker who died when the excavator he was operating plunged off a guideway at Tampa International Airport in July tried to escape from the machine before it fell more than 60 feet, according to a newly released police report. The Tampa International Airport Police Department report released Thursday includes witness accounts of what led to the excavator falling off a tram guideway on July 31. Cesar Hernandez Donu, a 29-year-old father of two from Seffner, died shortly after the fall. Airport police responded to the call about 7:41 a. m.

and found Donu trapped inside the excavator in a patch of grass just off Blue Arrival Drive. Donu was breathing sporadically when Officer Carlos Lopez arrived. “Unable to free (Donu), I noticed that his breathing started to decrease until he finally stopped breathing,” Lopez wrote in the report. Lopez felt Donu’s neck and could not find a pulse. Rescue crews freed Donu using a hydraulic tool.

He was pronounced dead at about 7:58 a. m. Two coworkers told police that just before the fall, Donu had lifted a metal plate with the excavator and began to turn left. At some point, the combined weight of the plate and a bit attached to the excavator’s arm caused the machine’s weight to shift and it began to go over the edge of the guideway, the witnesses said. “Both witnesses stated that Donu was strapped with the seatbelt and upon observing that the excavator was going over the side, he unstrapped his seatbelt in an attempt to exit the cab area,” the report states.

The witnesses said Donu wasn’t able to get out before the excavator fell about 65 feet, landing upside down. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s investigation into the incident was still underway Thursday, a spokesperson said. The agency does not provide details until an investigation is complete.