Airport Worker Sucked Into Jet Engine Was Warned to Stand Back

Airport Worker Sucked Into Jet Engine Was Warned to Stand Back

An American Eagle Embraer 170, similar to the aircraft involved in the incident.

An American Eagle Embraer 170, comparable to the plane concerned within the incident.
Photo: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images (Getty Images)

Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report on a stunning incident that befell at Alabama’s Montgomery Regional Airport. On New Year’s Eve, 2022, an Envoy Air employee was killed after being sucked into the jet engine of an Embraer 170. NTSB investigators have now laid out the sequence of occasions that led to the accident.

The airplane concerned within the deadly incident had landed after a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Montgomery. While the American Eagle flight was uneventful, the Embraer’s auxiliary energy unit (APU) was inoperative throughout the flight. The APU powers all the plane’s non-propulsion tools, together with electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic programs. As a outcome, the pilots elected to go away the small airliner’s jet engines operating till the airplane was linked to floor energy.

Reportedly, the bottom crew was briefed twice that the airplane’s jet engines can be operating whereas the airplane was parked. The first officer on the flight even reminded the ramp brokers about this by way of the cockpit window. The NTSB report states:

“The floor crew reported {that a} security briefing was held about 10 minutes earlier than the airplane arrived on the gate. A second security “huddle” was held shortly earlier than the airplane arrived on the gate, to reiterate that the engines would stay operating till floor energy was linked. It was additionally mentioned that the airplane shouldn’t be approached, and the diamond of security cones shouldn’t be set till the engines have been off, spooled down, and the airplane’s rotating beacon mild had been extinguished by the flight crew.”

According to the NTSB, regardless of these a number of warnings, video surveillance footage from the airport reveals the unnamed ramp agent strolling across the Embraer airplane and stepping in entrance of the number-one jet engine whereas it was nonetheless operating. The footage reveals the agent being pulled off their toes and into the turbine. The pilots felt the airplane shake violently, and engine primary mechanically shut down.

According to different staff on the scene, the ramp agent had already been pushed over as soon as by the engine’s exhaust and warned to keep away from the engines earlier than the deadly incident befell.

The report notes that the American Eagle worker guide specifies “the ingestion zone for all plane varieties is 15 toes,” and that personnel shouldn’t enter the ingestion zone till an plane’s engine or engines have totally spooled down and are available to a cease.

The NTSB’s findings are preliminary, and extra info might come to mild because the investigation continues.