An American Eagle Embraer 170, similar to the aircraft involved in the incident. Photo: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images (Getty Images)
Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report on a shocking incident that occurred at Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama. On New Year’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 events that led up to the accident.
The plane involved in the fatal incident had landed after a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Montgomery. While the American Eagle flight was uneventful, the Embraer’s auxiliary power unit (APU) was inoperative during the flight. The APU powers all of the aircraft’s non-propulsion equipment, including electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic systems. As a result, the pilots decided to leave the small airliner’s jet engines running until the aircraft was connected to ground power.
Ground crew were reportedly informed twice that the plane’s jet engines would be running while the plane was parked. The flight’s first officer even reminded the ramp agents through the cockpit window. The NTSB report states:
“Ground staff reported that a safety briefing was held about 10 minutes before the plane arrived at the gate. Just before the plane arrived at the gate, a second safety “huddle” was held to reiterate that the engines would run until ground power was connected. It was also discussed not to approach the aircraft and not set the diamond of safety cones until the engines were shut off, shut down and the aircraft’s beacons extinguished by the flight crew.”
According to the NTSB, despite these multiple warnings, airport video surveillance footage shows the unnamed ramp agent walking around the Embraer plane and stepping in front of the number one jet engine while it was still running. Footage shows the agent being pulled off his feet and into the turbine. The pilots felt the plane shake violently and engine number one shut down automatically.
According to other workers at the scene, the ramp agent had already been knocked over once by the engine’s exhaust and was warned to stay clear of the engines before the fatal incident took place.
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The report notes that American Eagle’s employee handbook states that “the intake zone is 15 feet for all aircraft types” and that personnel should not enter the intake zone until an aircraft’s engine or engines are fully shut down and have come to a standstill .
The NTSB’s findings are preliminary, and more information may emerge as the investigation progresses.