By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – Lambert Airport officials have fired one employee and reprimanded another for the failure of several backup generators during a recent power outage.
Several main electricity feeds to the airport went out during the thunderstorm of July 19. Much of Lambert went dark because three diesel generators there did not work.
Airport officials say two workers in charge of the generators did not follow proper maintenance procedures.
St. Louis city personnel director Richard Frank says a supervisor has received a written reprimand, and the person directly responsible has been fired.
"My belief, as well as the airport administration's, is this failure to properly maintain the generators, as well as misstatements that were revealed during the investigation process were worthy of dismissal, and immediate dismissal at that," Frank said.
Frank says the two workers have 10 days to appeal.