ELLSWORTH AIRMEN
INJURED IN ACCIDENT ON BASE BETWEEN A FUEL TRUCK AND A SNOW PLOW.
Piedmont, South Dakota
An accident involving a snow plow and a fuel truck
Monday at Ellsworth Air Force Base sent two airmen to the hospital, where one
reportedly underwent an arm amputation.
The base’s spokesman, Capt. Christopher Diaz, said the
accident happened at about 5 a.m. Monday. An airman first class and a senior
airman were operating a fuel truck during snow removal operations on the flight
line. The two airmen who were operating the fuel truck suffered
non-life-threatening injuries in the accident, Diaz said, and were transported
to Rapid City Regional Hospital. The airman who was operating the snow plow was
not injured.
Diaz said privacy laws prevent him from releasing the
airmen’s names, and the ongoing status of the accident investigation prevents
him from releasing further details.
Some unconfirmed details emerged on social media, where
the airmen were identified as Quoc Ly and Mike Husske. Ly was in serious condition
Wednesday at Rapid City Regional Hospital, and Husske was in good condition, a
hospital spokeswoman said. The hospital releases one-word condition reports on
patients if the requester supplies the names, but no further information is
released.
On Tuesday, a page was created on the GoFundMe.com
website to raise money for the injured airmen. The page’s creator, who
reportedly worked with the two injured airmen, did not respond to a Facebook
message or email from the Journal.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the page’s donation tally was
nearly $6,000. The page said the money will be split between the two injured
airmen's families "to offset the cost of staying with them during this
time."
Initially, the GoFundMe page contained a narrative with
details about the accident. The narrative was trimmed and most of the accident
details were removed sometime Wednesday. Also Wednesday, someone posted a
message on the base’s official Facebook page asking “everyone to refrain from
discussing/posting the Airmen’s personal information and the details of the
incident and injuries.”
On the Facebook page of Quoc Ly, meanwhile, a woman who
identified herself as his sister provided accident details similar to those
originally listed on the GoFundMe site and said Ly underwent a right-arm
amputation at the hospital following the accident.