Two workers die in fall at Plum Creek Wind Farm, Winside, Nebraska

Two wind turbine maintenance technicians fell to their deaths on Saturday 22 February 2025 while working at the Plum Creek Wind Farm near Winside, Wayne County, Nebraska. The local sheriff's office said the men, part of a wind turbine maintenance crew, had experienced an unspecified equipment failure which caused them to fall from a turbine. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. The 230MW site, which uses 82 turbines of 2.8MW each, is owned and operated by Ørsted and was completed in 2020. The workers were employed by a specialist wind turbine maintenance contractor rather than the site owner. Ørsted and GE Vernova, the turbine manufacturer, both confirmed the incident and offered condolences. An investigation into the cause of the equipment failure was ongoing at the time of reporting, with no further technical details disclosed.

Reported cause was an unspecified equipment failure during maintenance activity at height on a wind turbine; no further technical detail on the specific component or system involved has been disclosed publicly.

1. Fall protection and access equipment used during turbine maintenance should be subject to rigorous, documented inspection and failure-mode analysis given the severe consequences of failure at height.
2. Contracted maintenance crews and their equipment providers should have clear, auditable protocols and equipment certification independent of the site owner's own safety systems.
3. Equipment failures involving fall protection systems warrant industry-wide reporting and root cause investigation so that lessons can be shared across operators and turbine models, not just within a single company.

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