A 30-year-old man has died in mysterious circumstances after being found in the engine of a commercial jet at Salt Lake City Airport on Monday evening, the local police department has confirmed. Passengers were onboard the aircraft at the time of the accident.
In a statement, the Salt Lake City Police Department said its officers, alongside the city’s fire department and airport operations team performed ‘lifesaving efforts’ on the man but that he was tragically pronounced dead at the scene.
The engines of the passenger jet were not running at the time and it’s not believed that the man was ingested into the engine. Local authorities have refused to release further details about the case pending the outcome of their investigation.
Officers were first alerted to a disturbance being caused by the man inside a shop located within the secure airside area of the airport at around 9:52 pm on New Year’s Day.
Before law enforcement arrived at the scene, the man had managed to break through an emergency exit door and had run onto the airport’s ramp area.
A search was quickly initiated, and less than 20 minutes after the first call was received, the man was located “unconscious inside a wing-mounted engine of an occupied commercial aircraft on the deicing pad.”
Following the tragedy, the passengers who were onboard the aircraft were safely deplaned. The operator of the airplane has since been identified at Delta Air Lines.
Although the investigation is still live, aircraft are de-iced using toxic chemicals in special deicing pads where the wings, fuselage and vertical stabilizer are sprayed by specialist trucks.
