A man died after climbing inside the engine of a plane preparing to take off at Salt Lake City airport
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
- A 30-year-old man died at Salt Lake City Airport after climbing into a plane engine.
- Police pulled him from the engine and administered CPR and a medication used to treat overdoses, but he died at the scene.
- A store manager in the terminal reported a disturbance before the man left through an emergency exit.
A 30-year-old man died after climbing into a plane engine at Salt Lake City Airport, local police said Tuesday.
95 passengers were onboard the Delta Airlines Airbus A220 which was due to fly to San Francisco on Monday night before it was canceled as a result of the incident, NBC News reported.
The Salt Lake City Police Department said there were lifesaving efforts including CPR and administering naloxone — a medicine that reverses the effects of opioids — but the man died on scene. He was identified as Kyler Efinger from Park City, Utah. According to NBC, Efinger had a ticket to fly to Denver.
An SLCPD spokesperson told local news outlet KSL TV: "Based on the officers' training and experience and their observation, they did believe that there had been some indicators that the use of naloxone may have been appropriate."
Police said that their investigation began when a store manager on the secured side of the airport reported a disturbance with a passenger.
Airport Control then told police that the man had passed through an emergency exit in the terminal, and accessed the airport's ramp area.
10 minutes later, the police found personal items, including clothing and shoes, on one of the runways.
The SLCPD said in a statement that dispatchers informed officers that the man was at one of the airport's deicing pads, before he was spotted underneath an aircraft and accessing the engine.
Police officers arrived on the scene and found the man partially inside the A220 engine, which had begun rotating. They pulled the man from the engine's intake cowling and requested emergency medical services, the statement said.
The police statement added that the specific stage of engine operation remains under investigation, and the autopsy "may include a toxicology report."