AN ALABAMA AIRPORT WORKER DIED AFTER BEING SUCKED INTO A JET ENGINE

• An airport worker in Montgomery, Alabama died when they were “ingested into the engine” of a regional jet.
• The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the jet engine ingestion incident.
• Jet engine “ingestion” is uncommon, but not unheard of in the aviation industry.

A ground support worker at the Montgomery (Alabama) Regional Airport died after they were “ingested into the engine” of a regional jet on Saturday, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Envoy Air Embraer 170 jet was “parked at the gate with the parking brake set when a ground support personnel was ingested,” the NTSB said in a statement, via CNN.

Envoy Air is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines, which said in a statement that it was devastated by the accident involving a team member, who has yet to be named.

While injury or death from jet engine ingestion is uncommon, it isn’t unprecedented. In 2008, Boeing highlighted the dangers of ingestion in a company magazine, saying that in about 40 years of operating Boeing 737 model 100 and 200 airplanes, there had been 33 reports of ingestions, with one of those causing death.

Boeing said four fatal ingestion incidents had occurred on 737 model 300, 400, 500, and Next Generation airplanes in the same period. While Boeing’s article focuses on the company’s 737 airplane, the aircraft manufacturer says the risk of danger exists on all airplane models:

“When a jet engine operates, it creates a low air pressure area in the inlet. This low-pressure area causes a large quantity of air form the area forward of the inlet cowl to go into the engine. The air that is near the inlet cowl moves at a much higher velocity than air that is farther from the inlet. As a result, the amount of engine suction is small until ones nears the inlet, where the suction increases significantly.”

Airplane models with low ground clearance, typically seen in smaller regional jets, pose a greater hazard because the engine is potentially closer to workers.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the jet engine ingestion accident in Montgomery and expects a report within a few weeks.

2023-01-03T19:40:28Z dg43tfdfdgfd