A woman who witnessed an airport worker get ‘ingested’ into the engine of an Airbus A319 airplane and ‘shredded’ to death at San Antonio Airport in June is suing the employment agency that hired him for $1 million in damages.
Mackenzie Hill was traveling back to her home in Texas after attending a church conference and graduation in California. She claims to have seen the grisly death unfold in front of her eyes as she sat on the plane that was involved in the accident.
The gruesome incident was not investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) after the coroner determined that ramp worker David Renner, 27, had died by suicide.
Renner was sucked into the powerful jet engine as the A319 aircraft was pulling onto stand a short time after landing from Los Angeles at around 10:20 pm on June 23. The coroner said Renner died from “blunt and sharp-force injuries”.
In her recently filed lawsuit, Mackenzie provides a far more graphic description of Renner’s death. The complaint reads:
“As she watched him closely approach the massive jet, she witnessed a horror so disturbing and so unusual that it would instantly make headlines around the world: the man was suddenly ‘ingested’ into the engine of the airplane, and Mackensizr watched as the turbine essentially ‘shredded’ his body”.
“Mackenzie had her eyes directly on the gruesome scene, and she still has nightmares and flashbacks of seeing bits of the body being ‘spit out’ as the jet engine pulverized the rest of the human remains”.
She says she is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that has ‘crippled’ her ability to focus, work or even leave home and that the emotional toll of what she witnessed that night is causing relationship and communication problems with her friends and family.
To prove she witnessed Renner’s death, Mackenzie has handed over text messages she wrote to a friend a short time after the incident.
“I just watched a man jump into the jet plane,” Mackenzie wrote. “It happened on my side of the window… I’m not even kidding”.
“I literally saw it all,” the messages continued. “My heart is racing… I just don’t know what to think…My whole body is shaking; this is so f**ked”.
Attorneys acting on behalf of Mackenzie claim that passengers narrowly avoided physical harm because body parts thrown out of the jet engine could have pierced the fuselage of the airplane and hit passengers or caused a fire onboard.
The basis of the lawsuit revolves around whether Renner’s employer Unifi Aviation, a ground-handling company that manages Delta flights at San Antonio Airport, could have prevented the incident from happening.
Mackenzie argues that Renner had been visibly struggling with mental ill health leading up to his death and that Unifi should have taken action. In the lead-up to his death, Renner had posted alarming and disturbing posts on Facebook and family members told media organizations after his death that his mental health struggles had been well documented.
Based on this argument, the lawsuit alleges that Unifi is liable for the negligent hiring, supervision and retention of Renner. Mackenzie is asking for extensive damages for mental anguish, loss of wage-earning capacity, medical expenses and physical impairment.
It’s okay not to feel okay. There is always someone you can talk to in times of need, and you don’t have to deal with hardship or pain on your own. You can find confidential talking services in your local area by using the free search facility offered by Befrienders Worldwide.
In Texas, please check out the resources provided by the Texas Suicide Prevention Collaborative.
