Mojave Blast Victim Worked Dream Job

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Vitaliy Gisin has spoken out about his younger injured brother, Scaled Composites employee Eugene Gisin.

Although Vitaliy Gisin couldn’t speculate as to what happened in the Mojave explosion to injure his Russian-born brother, he said, “For his condition he is doing quite well.”

Eugene Gisin, eight years younger than Vitaliy Gisin, was one of three people injured at an explosion at Mojave Airport Thursday.

Three others were killed in the blast when two tanks of nitrous oxide exploded around 2:40 p.m. at a Scaled Composites rocket testing facility on the Mojave Airport premises.

Scaled Composites employees Eric Blackwell, 38, of Randsburg and Charles May, 45, of Mojave were killed instantly. A third person, Todd Ivens, 33, of Tehachapi, died at Kern Medical Center late Thursday evening.

According to Vitaliy, Eugene is the roommate of one of the other blast victims.

He also noted that his brother just graduated with a master’s degree from Cal Poly in aeronautics. “He was pursuing the dream of his life to work for an aerospace company.”

He also claims his brother understood the risks of working in the aeronautics industry.

Gisin, clearly shaken about his brother’s condition, had one positive comment to make about Thursday’s explosion.

“I’m glad this happened in America,” he said. “If this would have happened in Russia, most likely he wouldn’t have received this level of care.”