A chemical leak at GKN Aerospace's Garden Grove, California plant forced evacuations on Friday, raising explosion concerns at a facility that produces plane windows and military aircraft canopies for Boeing, Airbus, and Bombardier. The site employs roughly 540 workers and is one of 32 manufacturing plants the UK-based company operates globally.

Garden Grove sits within California's $35 billion aerospace and defense sector, which was undergoing expansion at the time. Richard Aboulafia, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, notes the supply chain depends on specialized firms with few competitors, so disruptions ripple through the entire industry.

The site, in operation since 2004 on 15.5 acres, had received only four OSHA inspections since 2018, with fines of $2,550 or less. A Pennsylvania factory fire last year already showed how single-point failures destabilize aviation supply chains.