Airline Worker Sucked Into Jet Engine

oldman

oldman

Well-known Member
Location
PA
On Friday night at San Antonio International Air[port, an airline worker was sucked into a jet engine on Delta flight 1111 and while taxing into the gate. The Airbus, A319 had just landed and coming off the tarmac when the accident occurred.

No other details of this accident are available right now, but the NTSB is investigating and will make details available once they have completed their investigation. I'm not even going to take a stab at what may have went wrong. The pilot that is flying the aircraft is supposed to taxi off the taxiway and once onto the tarmac, they should be cutting their thrust down to zero or near zero and use the air from the engines (sometimes 1) to produce enough speed to take the taxiway and lane into the gate, if the plane's APU was functioning. Once arriving at the gate, there should only be two wing walkers (one on each side of the plane) and one Marshall that does the directing of the plane to their parking spot at the gate by putting the nose wheel on the correct marking for the size of the plane.

This is the second such accident this year that I have read about. The other one was in Alabama on New Year's Eve when a similar accident occurred killing a mother of three. I will post this story, but BE AWARE there are GRAPHIC DETAILS in the story.

Woman Sucked Into Jet Engine
 

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oldman said:
On Friday night at San Antonio International Air[port, an airline worker was sucked into a jet engine on Delta flight 1111 and while taxing into the gate. The Airbus, A319 had just landed and coming off the tarmac when the accident occurred.

No other details of this accident are available right now, but the NTSB is investigating and will make details available once they have completed their investigation. I'm not even going to take a stab at what may have went wrong. The pilot that is flying the aircraft is supposed to taxi off the taxiway and once onto the tarmac, they should be cutting their thrust down to zero or near zero and use the air from the engines (sometimes 1) to produce enough speed to take the taxiway and lane into the gate, if the plane's APU was functioning. Once arriving at the gate, there should only be two wing walkers (one on each side of the plane) and one Marshall that does the directing of the plane to their parking spot at the gate by putting the nose wheel on the correct marking for the size of the plane.

This is the second such accident this year that I have read about. The other one was in Alabama on New Year's Eve when a similar accident occurred killing a mother of three. I will post this story, but BE AWARE there are GRAPHIC DETAILS in the story.

Woman Sucked Into Jet Engine
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yes i was going to say there was another fairly recently.......
thanks for the details of how the plane should be working when coming to a gate.
i am sure that workers are also trained and stressed to be aware and the fact this is a REAL danger on the job......
I am not blaming the victim but asking sincerely as to if people pay attention to the real risks of certain jobs....

i worked in a lab Setting that had many dangers of exposure and even though scientists and researchers were highly educated they had very little common sense and simple know your risk ,,,,,,,,,do not do this seemed to fall on deaf ears.
 

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I read somewhere that she was on the wrong side of the plane and had been warned twice to stay away....

is this the same story ?

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- A ground worker died Friday night when he was sucked into an engine of a jet that had just landed at San Antonio International Airport, and the local medical examiner is ruling it a suicide.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday it will not open an investigation. The accident investigator said that based on information provided by the medical examiner, "there were no operational safety issues with either the airplane or the airport."

The NTSB is the chief U.S. accident investigator. The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates airlines and aviation safety, indicated that it would investigate.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner's office said David Renner, 27, died of blunt and sharp-force injuries, and the manner of death was listed as suicide. The official declined to provide further information.

A Delta Air Lines plane that had flown from Los Angeles was pulling up to the terminal when the incident occurred, according to the FAA.

 
oldman said:
On Friday night at San Antonio International Air[port, an airline worker was sucked into a jet engine on Delta flight 1111 and while taxing into the gate. The Airbus, A319 had just landed and coming off the tarmac when the accident occurred.
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Apparently it was a suicide. Airport worker sucked into jet engine ruled a suicide by medical examiner, NTSB cancels investigation https://news4sanantonio.com/news/lo...-medical-examiner-transportation-safety-board
hollydolly said:
is this the same story ?
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I think so, however the link @oldman provided was to a similar incident in Alabama last winter. Little confusing. It's the more recent San Antonio case that was ruled suicide, don't know about the Alabama case.
Bretrick said:
I have always wonder why there is no screen covering the intake. Seems an easy fix.
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Not sure that would work, the air velocities are extremely high a person would probably just be sucked through the screen. And I suspect a screen would create problems for the engine.
 
Bretrick said:
I have always wonder why there is no screen covering the intake. Seems an easy fix.
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I vaguely remember watching something on TV many years ago regarding mesh screens being tested before the idea was abandoned. In order for the screen to do its job of preventing anything from being ingested it has to be significantly sturdy. As a consequence it reduced the airflow into the engine, making the engine less efficient. Something you don't want when trying to take off.

Memory of the TV documentary suggested that even a sturdy mesh when hit in flight by a bird strike at several hundred miles an hour could cause the mesh to collapse and be ingested, causing significant damage to the engine, and needing the engine to be shut down. Potential less damage being caused to the engine if a bird or birds fly straight into the engine without a mesh. Jet engines are tested with this in mind. From what I saw, by 'firing' dead chickens into the air intake during testing.

Whether a mesh could be moved in place whilst the plane is on the ground might be a different matter. But who is going to volunteer that when the engine is still turning. An automated system might be too expensive?
 
Magna-Carta said:
I vaguely remember watching something on TV many years ago regarding mesh screens being tested before the idea was abandoned. In order for the screen to do its job of preventing anything from being ingested it has to be significantly sturdy. As a consequence it reduced the airflow into the engine, making the engine less efficient. Something you don't want when trying to take off.

Memory of the TV documentary suggested that even a sturdy mesh when hit in flight by a bird strike at several hundred miles an hour could cause the mesh to collapse and be ingested, causing significant damage to the engine, and needing the engine to be shut down. Potential less damage being caused to the engine if a bird or birds fly straight into the engine without a mesh. Jet engines are tested with this in mind. From what I saw, by 'firing' dead chickens into the air intake during testing.

Whether a mesh could be moved in place whilst the plane is on the ground might be a different matter. But who is going to volunteer that when the engine is still turning. An automated system might be too expensive?
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People who work around planes not only get intense training on where they can and can't go and when, there are bold red LINES around where planes park that clearly mark the boundaries for any kind of foot traffic.
 
Murrmurr said:
People who work around planes not only get intense training on where they can and can't go and when, there are bold red LINES around where planes park that clearly mark the boundaries for any kind of foot traffic.
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I saw that recently in some photos.

At first, I wondered if it was a deliberate act. From what people have now posted it seems that it was.
 
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I remember on the news years ago a video of someone being sucked into the intake of a jet on an American Aircraft Carrier.

He was picked up like a rag doll. Fortunately, he got stuck in the intake and not pulled into the fan. Various items being pulled from his person and sucked into the engine, causing the pilot to shut it down. The person being sucked in suffering from a broken bone and some scratches. Lived to tell the tale. And perhaps thankful that he wasn't slimmer before being sucked in.

No doubt there must be a video of it on YouTube.
 
I heard this was suicide. That tells me this person was more than likely mentally unstable. There are much cleaner ways to depart this planet than what happened here.
 
Naturally said:
In the Navy we were shown safety films that featured people getting sucked into aircraft engines.
Yes, there are snippets of the same films on YouTube but I won't post a link.
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Before widespread use of jet engines the Navy warned about walking under an airplane the had a reciprocating engine & propeller. Even after shut down a prop cold turn. When I was working at the terminal in Argentia ,Newfoundland a Navy cargo plane stopped to refuel. It was carrying the body of a sailor that was cut in half by that kind of accident .

One of the worst experiences during my time in the Navy was when a 1st. class mechanic thought it would be funny to increase the RPM on an F-9 while I was inside the air inlet setting the fuel pumps.

When a new engine was put in the fuel pumps had to be set. To do that I had to slide down the intake to adjust the idle speed, Normally at idle there is just a little tweaking to do & another mechanic would hold the blow in door open & give me a thumbs up when the right RPM was reached.

Setting the high RPM was different. I'd crank the adjustment in, lock it in place then slide out. The mechanic would go to full throttle to check if it reached the right top end RPM. It needed a little more RPM so back in I went. This time the mechanic bumped up the RPM to where me blocking the air the blow in doors started to open. While that was happening I was sliding backwards out of the intake before the suction from the engine sucked the air out of my lungs. I didn't take it well & beat the crap out of that mechanic.
 

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