PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - 23yo model walks into propeller
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Old 6th Dec 2011, 22:49
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Pilot DAR
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 63
Posts: 5,618
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My words from the other thread on this:

Yep, this'll be on the pilot. In my opinion, there have to be pretty severe circumstances to leave a propeller turning with a passenger exiting. I'll occasionally do it if I have a "qualified" passenger (another pilot, aircraft mechanic), but never a not aircraft familiar person - it's just not worth the risk.

When hot exiting a knowledgeable pax, I always do two things: I turn the aircraft so the path from the exit, to where they will be walking is away from the prop, and I make eye contact while I remind them to watch out for the prop. I've never had a problem.

Wingstruts are a somewhat helpful barrier (which is why Cessna Cardinals were said to have a higher incidence of prop/pax strikes). I wonder how this passenger got around the wingstrut, and back in so close to the aircraft. Pilot parked the plane pointed toward the footpath destination? Doing this at night was a remarkably poor idea. If the woman were to notice the prop during daylight, she would not at night. And then she waved at someone.....

This unfortunate (ok, careless) accident needs lots of publicity among pilots, to remind us of our responsibility to passenger safety.
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