A tragic event unfolded at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on Wednesday when a person fell into a running aircraft engine and lost their life. The Netherlands Royal Military police confirmed the incident in a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), stating that they are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal accident.
Details regarding the identity of the deceased individual and whether they were a passenger or an employee have not been disclosed at this time. The incident occurred while passengers were on board the aircraft, which was bound for Billund, Denmark, according to a statement from air carrier KLM.
Following the incident, the passengers and employees disembarked the plane and were provided with care and support. KLM expressed their commitment to taking care of those who witnessed the tragic event, stating, “We are currently taking care of the passengers and employees who witnessed the incident at Schiphol.”
Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, described the incident as “horrible” in a post on X. The airport’s statement read, “Our thoughts go out to the relatives and we care for the passengers and colleagues who witnessed this.”
Sadly, this is not the first instance of someone losing their life in such a manner. In December 2022, an airport worker died in a similar accident at the Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama after being ingested into an aircraft engine. The National Transportation Safety Board reported that the aircraft, an Embraer 170 operated by regional carrier Envoy Air, was parked at the gate with the parking brake set when the ground support personnel was ingested.
Another tragic incident occurred in December 2015 at Mumbai airport, where an engineer was sucked into the engine of an Air India plane and died. The deadly incident happened as the Airbus A319 was being towed backward from the parking bay in preparation for taxiing out, with the engineer standing near the landing gear under the plane’s nose as he supervised the process.
As the investigation into the Schiphol Airport incident continues, the aviation industry and the public are left to grapple with the devastating loss of life and the impact on those who witnessed the tragic event.
