In the US state of Alabama, a 34-year-old died in an accident.
An airport ground crew member was sucked in by an airplane turbine.
Montgomery - Airports are not playgrounds.
Especially on the apron, when loading and unloading the aircraft, things are often hectic.
Passengers must disembark, baggage be unloaded, and the aircraft must be refueled, cleaned and technically checked before the new passengers can board again.
Rules, warning signs and instructions must be observed, especially by the ground staff, so that no accidents occur.
However, that is exactly what happened at the Montgomery airport in Alabama, USA.
A 34-year-old woman died there on New Year's Eve under tragic circumstances.
The local TV broadcaster
WBRC
described the events, citing a preliminary investigation report from the US Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Accordingly, the woman was sucked in and killed by a running turbine of a parked plane.
Fatal accident by turbine: Personnel should not approach the aircraft
According to the report, the woman belonged to the ground staff and repeatedly ignored the warnings and instructions given.
Shortly before the plane landed, the staff were again warned that both turbines at the gate would continue to run for two minutes to cool down the technology.
The pilots continued to turn the turbines because there had previously been technical problems with the power supply to an auxiliary engine.
While the turbines continue to rotate, no one should approach the parked machine,
WBRC said.
According to the preliminary report, one of the pilots had applied the parking brake and shut down the right wing engine when an alarm went off.
The alarm signaled the crew that the forward cargo door was being opened.
The co-pilot of the American Eagle airline machine then leaned out of the cockpit window to warn the ground crew of the imminent danger.
USA: 34-year-old woman 'snatched off her feet' in turbine accident
Video recordings show the events just before the woman's death.
The woman initially ran towards the tail of the plane with an orange safety cone in her hand.
Next she was seen along the leading edge of the left wing and walking just in front of the first engine.
"Then she was knocked off her feet," WBRC
quoted
from the investigation report.
Then the 37-year-old was pulled into the running turbine.
It is still unclear when the authority will present the final investigation report.
Normally, pilots do not want to take any risks with their machines.
Therefore, a machine recently had to make an emergency landing in Verona because smoke escaped from the cockpit.
To prevent human error in the cockpit, male and female pilots are never allowed to eat the same thing.
(ij)