Delta Airline planes at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. (icon picture) Picture: AFP
It is still unclear how the fatal accident could have happened. A regional airline was only fined a large amount on Wednesday for a similar incident.
In the US state Texas an airport employee has been sucked in and killed by a passenger plane’s engine. The flight of the US airline Delta, coming from Los Angeles, landed in San Antonio on Friday and rolled to the gate at night with only one engine running, the US traffic safety authority NTSB told the AFP news agency on Sunday. The worker was swallowed by the engine. The NTSB has opened an investigation into the incident.
The company was “deeply saddened” by the accident, a local radio station quoted a statement from Delta as saying. The group is cooperating with the authorities in their investigation.
According to local media, the man worked for the company Unifi Aviation, which is booked by major airlines for ground staff services. Unifi Aviation called the incident on the radio a “tragic accident” and stated that according to the company’s initial findings, it was not related to its own safety rules and procedures.
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As recently as Wednesday, authorities fined regional airline Piedmont Airline $15,625 for a similar incident.