The families of two construction workers who collapsed an unfinished private jet hangar at the Boise Airport nearly two years ago have settled a wrongful death lawsuit against two Idaho companies involved in the project.
Attorneys for the families and the project’s general contractor separately told the Idaho Statesman that terms of the agreement are confidential. In a related lawsuit, Meridian-based Big D Builders and Boise firm Walker Structural Engineering were both dismissed from their federal cases last month.
Enrique Serna, a lawyer for both families, told the Statesman that the financial settlement was reached through mediation. James Thomson, a lawyer representing Big D Builders, confirmed via email the confidential nature of the resolution accepted by his client.
Serna declined to say whether the two companies admitted any fault for the fatal crash in January 2024, citing confidentiality clauses in the agreement. “The customer approved it and they’re happy with the results,” he said in a phone interview.
While crews were still building a 43-foot-tall, 39,000-square-foot engineered steel hangar for the Jackson Jet Center, the massive construction project at the Boise Airport buckled and toppled. The Ada County Coroner’s Office reported days after the deaths that all three men died at the scene from blunt force trauma during the incident.
On January 31, 2024, Mario Sontay Tzi, 32, left, and Mariano “Alex” Coc Och, 24, both of Nampa, two construction workers, were killed when a private aircraft hangar collapsed at the Boise Airport.
The victims were two construction workers — Nampa residents Mario Sontay Tzi, 32, and Mariano “Alex” Coc Och, 24 — and Big D Builders co-founder Craig Durrant, 59, of Boise. Nine other workers were injured in the incident.
Serna represents the heirs of the two workers.
OSHA Violations on Appeal
After a six-month investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor, which oversees the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, found an “egregious disregard for safety standards” at the construction site that led to the hangar collapse. The federal agency claims the fatal crash could have been avoided with stricter compliance with industry standards.
OSHA issued citations and fined Big D Builders nearly $200,000 for safety violations, three of which were serious and one deemed “willful.” Inland Crane, the Boise-based crane services company responsible for the project, was also cited for serious violations, with a recommended fine of approximately $10,000.
After an unfinished aircraft hangar project in Boise collapsed in January 2024, killing three people, the Idaho Occupational Safety and Health Administration notified two Idaho construction companies, Inland Crane, a Boise-based crane services company, and Big D Builders (Meridian). The Inland crane safety violation was settled in April 2025.
Big D Builders and Inland Crane each appealed OSHA’s safety violations. Inland Crane reached a formal settlement with OSHA in April, resolving the violation case. The fine was dismissed and the ticket was expunged from Inland Crane’s records.
“The employer agreed to take additional steps to improve worker safety, and OSHA has withdrawn the original citation and penalty,” Department of Labor regional spokesman Michael Petersen said in a statement to the Statesman in April.
Big D Builders continues to raise questions about safety violations on its hangar project. The OSHA trial is scheduled for early May in Denver.
Thomson, Big D’s attorney in the federal lawsuit, is not representing the company in the OSHA appeal. But he told the Statesman that his client declined to comment on the pending dispute.
Construction of a new hangar at the Boise Airport’s Jackson Jet Center was completed in June of this year. A previous construction attempt at the project collapsed in January 2024, killing three workers and injuring nine others.
Meanwhile, the company resubmitted revised construction plans for the project to the city and began rebuilding the hangar earlier this year, according to previous reporting by the Statesman. Jackson Jet Center did not respond to the Statesman’s request, but a Boise airport spokesman said the hangar was completed in June.
That month, the hangar hosted a dedication ceremony for a cart for fallen soldiers returning to Idaho. This was followed by the Girls in Aviation event in September.
In June 2025, more than 300 people attended a ceremony at the Jackson Jet Center hangar at the Boise Airport to return fallen soldiers to Idaho.
Federal civil lawsuit continues
A wrongful death lawsuit by two families against other defendants is pending in U.S. District Court in Idaho.
There were initially six defendants in the case. Their attorney, Serna, argued that previous accusations that the city approved the wrong building plans were unwarranted, and the city was not included, the Statesman previously reported.
Two other companies were also fired before Big D Builders and Walker Structural Engineering settled with the families and were removed from the case. One of them has no “independent liability,” Serna said, while the other is an “entity that no longer exists … and its name has been somewhat misused.”
The remaining lawsuit involves Inland Crane and Steel Building Systems, an American custom steel fabricator based in Emmett. An Inland Crane spokesperson said in a statement to the Statesman that the company declined to offer a settlement.
“When OSHA withdrew the citation, it confirmed Inland Crane’s position that the company and its employees followed all safety protocols and were not at fault in the tragic events of January 31, 2024,” Doug Self said in an email. “Inland looks forward to adhering to this position and defending its employees, equipment and work records in court.”
Public attorneys representing Steel Building Systems did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. In a separate federal case, Steel Building Systems’ insurance company sued to avoid covering its client’s potential liability in a hangar collapse lawsuit filed by the families of two workers.
On January 31, 2024, an unfinished steel hangar collapsed near the Boise Airport, killing three workers and injuring nine others. A wrongful death lawsuit against the project’s general contractor was recently settled.
Serna said his clients intend to maintain the case and resolve it through the federal court system.
“We are pursuing claims against everyone still involved who were responsible for the death of my client’s (loved one),” he said. “We will let the people of Idaho decide who is more at fault — Outback Crane or Steel Building Systems — when they take office.”
