- The mechanic was performing routine maintenance on a Boeing 737-500
A mechanic was sucked into the engine of a Boeing passenger plane and killed at Chabahar Konarak Airport in southern Iran after he went to retrieve a tool near the plane.
Local mechanic Abolfazl Amiri was performing routine maintenance on a Boeing 737-500 of Iran’s national airline, Varesh Airline, when it was sucked into the engine.
According to Bild, the engine on the right side was started for a test run with the cover flaps open. A safety area has been established around the engine as is normally required.
But when Amiri realized he had forgotten the tool on the engine, he returned and was sucked in and killed before the engine burst into flames.
Amiri’s remains were found after airport firefighters arrived at the scene.
Iran’s Civil Aviation Authority has ordered an investigation into the accident.
In May, a man was killed at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport after being sucked into the engine of a KLM passenger plane.
Passengers and crew on board the Embraer 190, which KLM uses for its Cityhopper services to nearby destinations, told a local source that there was a “hell-like noise” coming from the engine, which quickly began to smoke.
The Royal Dutch Military Police, which investigated the incident, later said that the man had “deliberately climbed into the engine, suggesting that it was a suicide”.
They further said he was “identified as an employee of a company operating at the airport”.
Emergency crews mounted a “massive” response after the horror tragedy was reported at around 3pm, with a picture released by public broadcaster NOS showing the plane surrounded by fire engines and ambulances.
Flight 1341 was scheduled to depart from Schiphol in the Netherlands to Billund in Denmark at 14:25 on Wednesday.
It was not clear from initial reports whether the victim was traveling with the airline or worked at the airport.
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In 2022, a baggage handler was killed at an airport in Alabama after being sucked into the engine of an American Airlines plane while it was parked before a scheduled flight to Dallas.
An airport worker who died after being sucked into the engine of a recently landed plane so violently that it shook the entire plane was a mother of three and had been repeatedly warned to hold back.
The tragedy occurred on New Year’s Eve at the Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama. The victim was later identified as 34-year-old Courtney Edwards, who worked as a ground agent for Piedmont Airlines.
An initial report from the National Transportation Safety Board said Edwards was killed after he got too close to the engine of an Embraer E175 operated by American Eagle.
The report noted that Edwards ignored several warnings to stay back from the engines as the plane shut down.