INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Authorities say no one was injured when a network of pipes collapsed outside a Rolls-Royce aircraft-engine assembly plant in Indianapolis.
The collapse Friday left a 200-foot-long line of large pipes and support structures toppled outside a building.
Rolls-Royce spokesman Joel Reuter says some of the pipes carry steam and one carries pressurized air for testing jet engines. He says that pipe was funneling air into a building to test jet engines by simulating air flows at 20,000 feet when the collapse occurred.
Reuter says that pipe may have caused the collapse.
Wayne Township fire officials say a high-pressure air release apparently hurled part of that pipe several hundred feet, heavily damaging a small plant building.
Rolls-Royce employs about 4,000 workers in Indianapolis who assemble engines for military and commercial aircraft.
