On Friday evening, a ground worker at San Antonio International Airport was fatally pulled inside a jet engine.
According to KENS-TV, the National Transportation Safety Board stated that the worker entered the engine of a Delta Airlines plane.
“Delta Flight 1111 was taxying to the gate, with one engine on at that time, and a worker was ingested into that engine at 10:25 p.m,” the NTSB said in a statement, according to the station.
“The NTSB has been in contact with Delta. They are in the information-gathering process at this point,” the agency said.
The name of the employee has not been released.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, airline passenger Michael Braun claimed that the incident “caused a ripple effect with lots of rescheduling of passengers.”
According to KENS, the worker was employed by Unifi Aviation, a business that has a contract with Delta for ground crew operations.
The business issued the following statement on Saturday afternoon:
According to KENS, the firm released a statement saying, “Unifi Aviation is deeply saddened by the loss of our employee at San Antonio International Airport during a tragic incident in the late hours of Friday, June 23, 2023.”
“Our hearts go out to the family of the deceased, and we remain focused on supporting our employees on the ground and ensuring they are being taken care of during this time,” the statement said.
The company added that it believed it was blameless in the incident.
“From our initial investigation, this incident was unrelated to Unifi’s operational processes, safety procedures and policies. Out of respect for the deceased, we will not be sharing any additional information,” the statement said.
A statement from the airport offered few details.
“An accident occurred on the ground at San Antonio International Airport (SAT) tonight that resulted in the fatality of an airline ground crew member. We are deeply saddened by this incident and are working with authorities as they begin their investigation,” the statement said.
BREAKING: The San Antonio International Airport has confirmed that an airline crew member has lost his life on the tarmac following a tragic accident. pic.twitter.com/QUlawnEMzm
— SkyNewsSA (@SkyNewsSA) June 24, 2023
According to the New York Post, the tragedy was the second of its sort in the previous six months.
Courtney Edwards, a member of the ground staff at Montgomery Regional Airport, was sucked into the engine of a regional airliner operated by American Airlines on New Year’s Eve. American subsidiary Piedmont Airlines was later penalized $15,625 in relation to the incident.
