People know that being too close to an airplane is harmful, especially its powerful jet engines, which might kill you in a second. But horrible things still happen, even with the risks.
And now it’s happened again, in a way that has surprised both airport workers and visitors.
Pulled into one of the engines
On July 8, a horrible disaster happened at Milan Bergamo Airport when an airplane engine dragged a 35-year-old man to his death.
The event shocked both airport officials and passengers, stopping planes and making Italian authorities start an immediate investigation. Bergamo News said that the man, whose name has not been made public, went to the airport and somehow slipped past security to access to a restricted area on the tarmac.
A Volotea Airbus A319 was about to take off for Oviedo, Spain, when the man got stuck in one of the plane’s turbofan engines during a “pushback” move just before 10:35 a.m. local time. In a statement, Sacbo, the company that runs the airport, claimed that the “incident happened on the taxiway” and that police are “looking into it” right now.
Volotea Airlines posted on X, “We’re sorry to say that flight V73511 from BGY-OVD was involved in an incident at Milan-Bergamo Airport at 10:35h.” One person who wasn’t on the plane and had nothing to do with the company was harmed quite seriously in the accident.
The person who got harmed was not a passenger or an airport employee.
They also said, “All six crew members and 154 passengers are safe.” At 15:55, a new flight is set to leave.
Authorities confirmed that the victim was not an airport employee or a passenger. It is still not clear how he got past security to get to such a risky place. People say the man parked his car in front of the airport, broke into a locked entrance, and then ran to a plane that was about to take off.
According to ANSA, officials assume the victim may have gotten onto the runway with the intention of killing himself.
Because of the horrific event, all airport operations stopped until noon, which caused at least 19 aircraft to be delayed or rerouted.
Emergency workers, police investigators, and scientists from Bergamo’s Scientific Unit all worked together to keep the area secure and find the victim’s body. Firefighters also helped when further information about what the individual did before the tragedy became available.
The Daily Mail adds that the plane’s engines can spin at a speed of roughly 15,000 times per minute, which is enough to kill someone in a matter of seconds. The Italian civil aviation authority is looking into how the person was able to get onto the runway without being seen.
There was a red Fiat 500 involved in the collision.
Bergamo News says that the dead person was an Italian citizen who was not a passenger or an airport worker. The police are looking into a red Fiat 500 that was parked inside the airport, close to where buses usually park. The police think that the 35-year-old male drove that car to the airport in Orio al Serio.
According to people at the airport, the man seemed to have made a mistake turn at a roundAabout, stopped the car quickly, opened the door, and run away.
Officers nearby noticed something was awry and one of them ran after it. The man then forced open a security door in the arrivals area, which let him get straight to the runway. A few minutes later, the terrible thing happened.
People who were on the plane and the crew who saw the awful event are getting mental health care. Authorities are still trying to understand out what caused the deadly safety failure, and the airport and airline have offered to help in any way they can.