Mariano Coc Och and Mario Sontay Tsi, both Guatemalan citizens, died in January when a private airplane hangar under construction near the Boise airport collapsed. A co-founder of Big D Builders, the lead contractor, also died. Nine others were injured.
Families for the two deceased construction workers filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Big D Builders and three other entities.
The victims' lawyer Enrique Serna said in a press conference Wednesday that after initial building permits were issued, the construction plans were changed and the updates did not go through proper approvals. He said the City of Boise did not sign off on them.
"They decided to build those components in non-OSHA approved manufacturing facilities and if they were approved, the quality of the work was substandard," Serna said during the conference.
Serna also said there were 25- to 35-mile-per-hour-winds, on top of emerging structural issues.
"You have a lot of people saying that the day before the collapse, cables were popping, braces were popping, pieces were not conforming," Serna said.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has not yet issued a final report. A person who answered the phone at Big D Builders said the company had no comment.
