An airport worker who was contracted to Delta was killed after being sucked into an engine on the tarmac of San Antonio International Airport.
Emergency services responded to the incident at around 10.25pm on Friday night.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed the airline ground crew member died after they went into the engine of a Delta Airlines aircraft. The agency described the worker as being ‘ingested’ into the engine.
The plane had just arrived from Los Angeles and was taxying to a gate at the time of the accident.
Delta Flight 1111 had just one engine on at the time when the worker, who is yet to be identified, was sucked in and killed.
Emergency personnel on the tarmac after a worker sucked into the engine of Delta plane in San Antonio
The plane remained at the gate the next morning and flights in the airport were delayed.
The death of the airline ground crew member is being investigated by authorities.
‘Delta Flight 1111 was taxying to the gate, with one engine on at that time, and a worker was ingested into that engine at 10.25pm,’ the NTSB said in a statement.
‘The NTSB has been in contact with Delta. They are in the information gathering process at this point.’
The employee worked for a company that Delta Airlines has contracts with in order to support ground handling operations.
It released a statement on Saturday which read: ‘We are heartbroken and grieving the loss of an aviation family member’s life in San Antonio.
‘Our hearts and full support are with their family, friends and loved ones during this difficult time.’
San Antonio airport officials said they were ‘saddened’ by the worker’s death.
‘An accident occurred on the ground at San Antonio International Airport tonight that resulted in the fatality of an airline ground crew member,’ it said.
‘We are deeply saddened by this incident and are working with authorities as they begin their investigation. We will share more information as details become available.’
The worker’s employee Unifi Aviation said the ‘tragic incident’ was unrelated to its safety procedures.
‘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,’ it said in a statement.
Emergency services responded to the incident at around 10.25pm on Friday night
The death of the airline ground crew member is being investigated by authorities
‘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.
‘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. While police and other officials continue to investigate this incident, we defer to them on providing further details.’
This is the latest incident to occur on the ground at a US airport over the past year.
A subsidiary of American Airlines was fined $15,000 over the death of a ground crew worker who was sucked into the engine of one its planes.
Courtney Edwards, 34, was ‘ingested into the engine’ at Montgomery Regional Airport, Alabama, on New Year’s Eve.
The mother of three was on the ramp where American Airlines Flight 3408, an Embraer E175, was parked before she died.
Piedmont Airlines was fined by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration after it was found responsible for a safety breach that led to her death.
Her union released a statement which said Piedmont Airlines was ruled to be ‘guilty of a serious breach’.
An American Airlines subsidy is facing a $15,000 fine after Courtney Edwards, an airline worker, died when she was so violently ‘ingested’ into the engine of a landed plane it shook the entire aircraft
Edwards worked as a ground agent for Piedmont Airlines
An obituary for Edwards mentions that she is survived by her three children
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a close call at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on June 14 in which a plane trying to land came within just 200 feet of another flight preparing to take off.
Authorities say an American Airlines flight was arriving at the airport from Dallas, Texas at around 6.30pm Wednesday at the same time a Delta flight headed for Santa Ana, California was preparing for takeoff.
Air traffic controllers could be heard in a recording of the incident telling the pilot of American Airlines flight 2406 to cancel its landing and go around the 30 left runway because Delta Air Lines flight 1163, which had been cleared to land, was still on the runway.
But after the controller told the American Airlines pilot to ‘go around,’ the aircraft passed above and to the left of the Delta Airbus A220 — coming within just 200 feet vertically and 850 horizontally from each other.
The incident marks at least the fifth time this year that two planes just missed each other at American airports — and came just two days before a United Airlines plane backed into a Delta flight at Boston’s Logan airport.
Dailymail.com has contacted Delta Airlines for comment.
