Originally Posted by
tdracer
Human ingestion on large turbofans is surprisingly rare - last number I saw was something like once every ten years, worldwide. So I'd be a bit surprised if there is an established protocol for something that happens so rarely (and it's not like the cause of death is in question).
I was doubting that the engine would be removed and turned over to the coroner (though in Texas, they still have some independence in their state laws from my experience).
If the ingestion rate has really dropped to once a decade I'd be surprised. The numbers for the 737 family alone were higher in the Boeing article linked below.
From a 2008 Boeing article:
Airline and airport employees work around commercial airliners every day throughout the world without incident. However, neglecting to stay out of the engine inlet hazard areas or complacency working near operating engines can result in severe injury or death.
There have been 33 reported ingestions of personnel into an engine on 737*-100/*200 airplanes since 1969. Several of these ingestions caused serious injuries and one resulted in a fatality. There have also been four reports of fatal ingestion incidents on 737*-300/*400/*500 and next* generation 737 airplanes. The most recent fatalities occurred in 2006.
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aer...icle_04_1.html
Here's an earlier thread with discussions of human ingestion mishaps at BOM and ELP:
Air India engineer sucked into an aircraft engine at Mumbai
In both the BOM and ELP incidents engine thrust was above idle on the ground.
In one of my posts on the thread linked above I mentioned that I had heard two versions of the disposition of an engine with the only recovered remains of some pax in a United 747 cargo door failure out of HNL:
Originally Posted by
Airbubba
In the 1989 United 811 B-747 cargo door failure out of HNL several passengers were ejected from the aircraft and human remains were found in engine number 3 after the emergency landing back in HNL.
One story floating around the business at the time was that the engine was quietly barged out to sea and sunk.
But, I read in a travel column years ago that the engine was buried near SFO and a memorial was erected.
Anyone know which, if either, of these accounts is correct?
Whatever the case, the UA 811 aircraft was put back into service and flew for several more years.
And the AUS accident aircraft N401WN was fixed and operated to MDW this morning. Don't know if the engine was changed.