Final month, the Nationwide Transportation Security Board launched its preliminary report on a surprising incident that occurred at Alabama’s Montgomery Regional Airport. On New 12 months’s Eve, 2022, an Envoy Air employee was killed after being sucked into the jet engine of an Embraer 170. NTSB investigators have now laid out the sequence of occasions that led to the accident.
The airplane concerned within the deadly incident had landed after a flight from Dallas-Fort Value to Montgomery. Whereas the American Eagle flight was uneventful, the Embraer’s auxiliary energy unit (APU) was inoperative through the flight. The APU powers the entire plane’s non-propulsion tools, together with electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic methods. In consequence, the pilots elected to go away the small airliner’s jet engines working till the airplane was linked to floor energy.
Reportedly, the bottom crew was briefed twice that the airplane’s jet engines could be working whereas the airplane was parked. The primary officer on the flight even reminded the ramp brokers about this by way of the cockpit window. The NTSB report states:
“The bottom crew reported {that a} security briefing was held about 10 minutes earlier than the airplane arrived on the gate. A second security “huddle” was held shortly earlier than the airplane arrived on the gate, to reiterate that the engines would stay working till floor energy was linked. It was additionally mentioned that the airplane shouldn’t be approached, and the diamond of security cones shouldn’t be set till the engines had been off, spooled down, and the airplane’s rotating beacon gentle had been extinguished by the flight crew.”
Based on the NTSB, regardless of these a number of warnings, video surveillance footage from the airport exhibits the unnamed ramp agent strolling across the Embraer airplane and stepping in entrance of the number-one jet engine whereas it was nonetheless working. The footage exhibits the agent being pulled off their ft and into the turbine. The pilots felt the airplane shake violently, and engine primary mechanically shut down.
Based on different staff on the scene, the ramp agent had already been pushed over as soon as by the engine’s exhaust and warned to remain away from the engines earlier than the deadly incident occurred.
The report notes that the American Eagle employee manual specifies “the ingestion zone for all aircraft types is 15 feet,” and that personnel should not enter the ingestion zone until an aircraft’s engine or engines have fully spooled down and come to a stop.
The NTSB’s findings are preliminary, and more information may come to light as the investigation continues.
