The National Transportation Safety Board said an airline worker killed in a Dec. 31 incident at an Alabama airport had received multiple warnings about the dangers of being near running jet engines.
The agency’s preliminary report, released on Monday, did not explicitly assign blame for the incident at Montgomery Regional Airport. It cited instances where workers were warned to avoid running jet engines when planes were grounded.
The employee, identified as a ramp agent for American Airlines commuter carrier American Eagle, was on the tarmac and had apparently set up a safety cone at the back of the parked aircraft just before she was pulled into an engine and killed, according to the NTSB. The worker’s name was not mentioned in the NTSB report.
Courtney Edwards, 34, a mother of three from the area, was identified as an employee by the Communications Workers of America. According to the union and American Airlines, she worked for Piedmont Airlines, a regional subsidiary.
The report details several instances when the worker was directly warned or informed about the dangers of being too close to the engines.
According to the report, two ramp agents saw workers getting too close to the plane and an engine and tried to wave them off. According to the NTSB report, in one case, an agent saw a worker almost collapse from an engine’s exhaust and tried to warn her to stay back.
The plane arrived at its gate from Dallas-Fort Worth after two safety briefings, during which crew members were warned that the engines would remain on until electricity from the ground could be connected, according to the NTSB.
According to the report, crew members were instructed not to place safety cones or crew on the ground near the aircraft until the engines were turned off, turbines stopped spinning, and a rotating beacon light was extinguished.
The NTSB report included an excerpt from American Eagle’s ground operations manual, which echoed those points.
The worker walked along the leading edge of the plane’s left wing after placing the cone, which put her directly in front of one of the Embraer 170’s two engines, according to the NTSB report.
According to the NTSB, the employee got too close to the running engine while walking along the wing and was killed.
According to the report, the rotating beacon light appeared to be on throughout the incident.
Requests for comment from American Airlines and Edwards’ mother were not immediately returned.
In a statement earlier this month, Richard Honeycutt, regional vice president of Communications Workers of America, said, “She was away from her family working on New Year’s Eve making sure passengers got to where they needed to be for the holidays. She represents the very best of our CWA airport members, who constantly make sacrifices to serve the flying public.”
The union organized a crowd-funding page, which raised nearly $100,000 for Edwards’ children.
