Poor maintenance blamed for Nellis shelter collapse

NORFOLK, Va. -- A sun shelter at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada hadn't been inspected or maintained for years when it collapsed during a September wind storm, injuring eight and damaging a dozen planes, Air Force investigators said in a report released Wednesday.

The report said the sun shelter, 2,500 feet long and 75 feet wide, was structurally unsound when winds reaching 65 mph swept across the south end of the airfield and caused the shelter to collapse.

Personnel who were underneath the structure at the time said the collapse was like a sheet of ice sliding off a roof, according to the report. But visibility was so poor from a dust storm, described as a "wall of sand," that other witnesses on scene who weren't underneath the structure couldn't see the collapse.

Photographs taken before the structure collapsed showed it in disrepair.

The report said cable bracing that was needed for the sunshade's structural stability was loose, damaged or missing in several areas.

"Interviews with personnel from the Maintenance Group demonstrate that personnel did not consider the possibility that the sunshade could collapse," the report said. "As a result of this over-confidence in equipment, no inspection and maintenance procedures were developed and no advice from others was sought regarding the sunshade."

The report said that the sunshade was installed between 2000 and 2003 and that no maintenance had taken place since then.

The damaged planes included 10 F-16s and two A-10s.