Ground crew worker killed in accident at Alabama airport

An American Airlines employee has died after being sucked into a jet engine at Montgomery Regional Airport. Photo / Rawsalerts

A member of an airline ground crew working at an Alabama airport died over the weekend in an accident at the facility.

The unidentified employee was said to have been sucked into a running engine of an Envoy Air flight that was parked ahead of its scheduled flight to Dallas, Texas at around 3pm on Saturday.

The victim was an employee of Piedmont Airlines. Both Envoy and Piedmont are regional subsidiaries of American Airlines.

My cousin is there now and witnessed the accident.

— SSJLynn (@SSJLynn) December 31, 2022

According to a witness the employee was sucked into an engine after attempting to open a cargo door.

Montgomery Regional Airport said in a statement that the employee died in an “industrial accident”.

“We are saddened to hear about the tragic loss of a team member of the AA/Piedmont Airlines,” airport executive director Wade Davis said in the statement.

Today around 3 pm an American Airlines ground crew piedmont employee was involved in a fatality, no additional information is available at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased.

— Montgomery Regional Airport (@flymgm) January 1, 2023

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told American new outlet Fox News that the employee was killed on the ramp at the airport where American Airlines Flight 3408, an Embraer E175 twin-jet, was parked. Data on FlightAware showed the flight was scheduled to depart from Gate 4 in Montgomery for Dallas-Fort Worth on Saturday afternoon.

The airport said in a Twitter post that normal operations resumed at 8.30pm. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transpiration Safety Board are investigating the incident.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press seeking additional information.