Man found dead inside plane engine after breaching airport security
A man died after breaching security at Salt Lake City International Airport and climbing inside of a plane engine.
Shortly before 10pm on New Year’s Day, a store manager at the airport told control center dispatchers that a passenger had caused a disturbance in a secured area of the terminal, said the Salt Lake City Police Department.
The intruder entered through an emergency exit door, airport control staff told responding cops, and got onto the airport ramp area.
According to the airport, ‘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’.
At around 10.10pm, cops and airport workers ‘found the man unconscious inside a wing-mounted engine of an occupied commercial aircraft on the deicing pad’, stated the police department on Tuesday.
They worked to get the man out of the engine intake cowling and performed lifesaving measures, but he died at the scene.
‘It is unclear at this time what injuries caused the man’s death,’ stated the airport.
The man has not been identified, pending notification to his family. His cause of death is being determined by a medical examiner.
Airport employees secured the area and deplaned passengers aboard the Delta A220-100 aircraft safely.
The plane was supposed to travel to San Francisco International Airport. The incident did not disturb overall operations at the airport in Utah.
The SLC Department of Airports is working with the police department, Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Transportation Security Administration to investigate the matter.
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.
American Airlines at the time stated they were ‘devastated by the accident’ and said they were ‘focused on ensuring all involved have the support they need during this difficult time’.
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