A worker at the Prairie Queen wind farm in northern Allen County was injured Saturday after falling into one of the wind turbines blades.
Daren Kellerman with the Allen County Sheriffs Department said the worker, whose name was not released, suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the accident.
The 22-year-old worker was part of a three-man crew inside a small cell within the turbines hub, about 275 feet in the air, when he fell an undetermined distance into one of the three attached hollow blades.
The worker caught himself before he fell farther into the blade, Kellerman said.
The two coworkers used a block and tackle pulley system to lower a rope to the injured worker, who then connected the apparatus to his safety harness.
The worker was hoisted back into the cell, then lowered through the towers tube to the ground.
An ambulance and fire crew from Moran were dispatched to the scene, about five miles north and one mile west of Moran. A rescue unit from the Iola Fire Department also responded, as did the wind farms emergency crew.
The worker was flown from the scene via helicopter to a hospital in Kansas City, Kellerman said.
Advertisement
Advertisement
