Yahoo Autos Airport Worker Sucked Into Jet Engine Was Repeatedly Warned to Stand Back
Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report on a shocking incident that took place at Alabama’s Montgomery Regional Airport. On New Year’s Eve, 2022, an Envoy Air worker was killed after being sucked into the jet engine of an Embraer 170. NTSB investigators have now laid out the sequence of events that led to the accident.
The plane involved in the fatal incident had landed after a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Montgomery. While the American Eagle flight was uneventful, the Embraer’s auxiliary power unit (APU) was inoperative during the flight. The APU powers all of the aircraft’s non-propulsion equipment, including electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic systems. As a result, the pilots elected to leave the small airliner’s jet engines running until the plane was connected to ground power.
Read more
Reportedly, the ground crew was briefed twice that the plane’s jet engines would be running while the plane was parked. The first officer on the flight even reminded the ramp agents about this through the cockpit window. The NTSB report states:
“The ground crew reported that a safety briefing was held about 10 minutes before the airplane arrived at the gate. A second safety “huddle” was held shortly before the airplane arrived at the gate, to reiterate that the engines would remain running until ground power was connected. It was also discussed that the airplane should not be approached, and the diamond of safety cones should not be set until the engines were off, spooled down, and the airplane’s rotating beacon light had been extinguished by the flight crew.”
