Man Found Dead Inside Plane Engine: Investigation Underway

On New Year’s Day, a man died after breaching security at Salt Lake City International Airport and climbing inside a plane engine.

The man was pronounced dead on the scene, and a medical examiner is determining his cause of death. The man has not been identified, pending notification to his family. The SLC Department of Airports is working with the police, Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, and Transportation Security Administration to investigate the matter.

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According to the airport, a store manager reported to control centre dispatchers that a passenger had caused a disturbance in a secured terminal area. The intruder entered through an emergency exit door, airport control staff told responding cops, and got onto the airport ramp area.

The individual ran to the south end of the airport’s west runway, where deicing operations were underway, and crawled into an aircraft engine that was not running. Cops and airport workers found the man unconscious inside a wing-mounted engine of an occupied commercial aircraft on the deicing pad. They worked to get the man out of the engine intake cowling and performed lifesaving measures, but he died at the scene.

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Airport employees safely secured the area and deplaned passengers aboard the Delta A220-100 aircraft. The plane was supposed to travel to San Francisco International Airport. The incident did not disturb overall operations at the airport in Utah.

Analysis

Monday’s incident happened exactly a year after an airline crew worker was ingested into the running engine of an American Airlines plane at Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama and died.

The SLC Department of Airports, the police department, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Transportation Security Administration are investigating the incident at Salt Lake City International Airport.

Dan Olczak

"Editor with expertise in politics and crime, also known for travel blogging."

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