Fashion Model walks into Aviat Husky prop!

[Earl of Rochester]

A fashion model had her hand sliced off and suffered severe facial injuries after accidentally walking into a spinning airplane propeller.

Lauren Scruggs, 23, sustained horrific wounds to her head and shoulder but is now in a stable condition after undergoing emergency treatment where surgeons were forced to amputate her left hand.

Miss Scruggs, who writes a fashion blog, was injured as she climbed out of a two-seater plane at Aero County Airport in McKinney, Texas after a flight to see Christmas lights across the state.

Photos and videos here (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2070258/Model-23-hand-severed-face-slashed-walking-spinning-plane-propeller.html)

[Trim Stab]

Nearly a Darwin award....


Well I don't normally object to sick jokes or darwin award jokes if they are funny - but that is not. Why do you think it jokeworthy that a young person, probably with no interest whatsoever in or knowledge about aeroplanes, should be taken unawares with such miserable consequences?

[mad_jock]

A hot pax swap on a pleasure flight!!!! Is that normal in the US?

We had one in the UK recently that a pax walked forward, off the wing and nearly had there arm off.

[PURPLE PITOT]

Hot pax swaps, dangerously irresponsible, or armless fun.

Discuss.

[mad_jock]

PURPLE straight to the naughty step. I will join you in a min once I have cleared up the coffee that went up my nose.

[mrmum]

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D nice one

[Nigd3]

I've got to side with Trim Stab on this one and perhaps the direction of the posts should be more about ensuring the passengers walk away without losing limbs. Could have easliy have been a fatality.

[mad_jock]

There is no ensuring to be done if the engine isn't turning.

[Piltdown Man]

Again, another dreadful example of moving propellers and people in close proximity. The two don't mix and for as long as propellers have been around we've known this. There are reasons as to why people might be 'near' moving propellers, but they had better be very good ones with plenty of 'barriers' to prevent this kind of incident.

PM

[Dawdler]

Surely this is down to the pilot. I was at an event where two helicopters were giving pleasure rides to children. One pilot insisted stopping the rotors before swapping passengers (he was the one I was helping) the other did every swap "hot". Both were R44's so the dangers were perhaps less as the rotors are pretty high off the ground. They were certainly less than when a convential SEP was being used, but theose guys all stopped the engines first.

[Pilot DAR]

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.

[RainingLogic]

Well you have to ask where the pilot was, setting the tone of safety and such when all this happened....but of course, ban me quick, this is the forum where 200 hour pilots are not only qualified to fly airliners, but entitled to.

[His dudeness]

but of course, ban me quick, this is the forum where 200 hour pilots are not only qualified to fly airliners, but entitled to

Oh really?

[mad_jock]

Well you have to ask where the pilot was

I presume sitting in the LHS.

[ShyTorque]

This is awful. As the father of a young daughter, I know how I would feel about this if had happened to her.

[mad_jock]

Its not sitting well with me to be honest either tourist.

Although after PURPLES one liner I had to have a word with myself.

There is a young girl who is pretty much a lump of mince meat with more than likely brain damage who got this way through lack of duty of care of a professional pilot/ operation.

I don't agree that we should protect idiots of this world from themselves but there is a level of risk which the public shouldn't be exposed to.

I have never been happy sitting in the seat while engineers do leak checks on our engines 75cm behind the fans. But they tell me its an acceptable risk. Have refused to do it with one engineer because I didn't trust him not do something stupid.

Joe public, presume they are thick and will do something stupid if they possibly can.

[PURPLE PITOT]

In general life, you cant stop idiots doing stupid things. In aviation, as commanders, it is our duty to stop them.

[mad_jock]

That line is getting stolen for my opening slide in my command course notes.

Cheers Purple.

[PURPLE PITOT]

It serves as a stark reminder to pilots that they are responsible for the safety of those in their charge.

[ShyTorque]

I'm known for my sometimes inappropriate sense of humour but I'm appalled that so-called professional pilots could find the maiming of a passenger in any way amusing.

[S-Works]

I am a little stunned by the crass and insensative remarks being made here. This is a life altering accident for this young woman and was avoidable. Here looks or hair colour have no relevance on the nature of the accident.

Would people be so quick to quip of the victim was black or asian in todays politically correct society?

Spare a thought for the girl, life as she knew it is over and is going to take a lot of rebuilding.

[His dudeness]

I am a little stunned by the crass and insensative remarks being made here. This is a life altering accident for this young woman and was avoidable. Here looks or hair colour have no relevance on the nature of the accident.

Would people be so quick to quip of the victim was black or asian in todays politically correct society?

Spare a thought for the girl, life as she knew it is over and is going to take a lot of rebuilding.

+1.

I`d also think we should not judge the pilot so quickly, at least I don´t know any of the circumstances, nor age and education of the pilot. He should have stopped the engine, sure, but...if he is the least bit sensible he will be in a sorry state of mind now, as something happened nobody can reverse.

I´m thankful nothing of this magnitude happened to me yet, but I know a dude who had a customs officer walk into his wing as he turned onto a parking stand behind the follow me. More than once a follow me driver or FBO employee put chocks on the nose wheel of my KingAir whilst the props where still spinning. It doesn`t take much to struggle & fall into the big 4 bladed Hartzell - that would kill you instantly, even when only spinning down after shutoff.

[LGW Vulture]

The fashion model title allows open season. Dumb and pretty, they go together. In a very Politically Correct world, sexism can still shine through in the aviation industry. Keep it up lads.....:ugh:

[Crashdriver]

I'm sorry, call me crass if you'd like but I really don't feel bad for her. Yes the pilot should have shut the engine down, it's a 4 banger piston engine it's not that big of a process to shut it off.

But at the same time you almost have to go out of your way to walk into the meat grinder. I believe the Husky setup is much like a Super Cub, pax in the back. So she'd have to get out of the airplane, walk around the wing strut, and the wheel, stay right up close to the airplane, in the propeller's slipstream, towards the noisy engine, and then finally meet her fate. I'm sorry that's just plain stupidity.

[suninmyeyes]

You have here an attractive 23 year old model who has made a terrible mistake and has most probably lost her looks for ever.

it sounds like it was nearly dark and having exited the aircraft safely and cleared the propellor the girl remembered something and went back to talk to the pilot. She was probably highly excited and thrilled by her experience in an unfamiliar environment and made a mistake which will affect her for the rest of her life.

This incident is being discussed rather more objectively elesewhere on Pprune.

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/471061-23yo-model-walks-into-propeller.html

[stuckgear]

+1.



+2. I'm astounded at some of the responses here. As one with a very dry and sardonic sense of humour the injuries and circumstances of this young girls misfortune are no laughing matter.

Did the first P in PPRuNe pass some people by ? it stands for professional. not childish, not infantile, not school-yard.

Get a grip.

[ADFS]

A few posters, dont need to use nicks, are absolute monsters. A young girl mistakenly walking into turning prop is funny ?:yuk:
I was a captain with a turbo-prop operator in spain. one fine hot summer day in LEPA one of our ground people walked into my still running right engine and was fatally wounded. A cuban immigrant, maths professor with 2 kids. I felt something die in me that day.
That anyone calling themself a human-being could find this somehow laughable is absolutely disgusting:=

[bolkow]

Suninmyeyes, are you implying the tradgedy was that she was pretty, and it would by implication not been so tragic had she not been?

As for dark humour, yes its awful, but frequently misunderstood by some as meaning the joker does not care, when frequently its a persons way of trying to deal with events that they find deeply shocking. A bit like the jokes in relartion to Christa Mc Auliffe about teacher burnout in the shuttle tradgedy.

[suninmyeyes]

Bolkow

Suninmyeyes, are you implying the tradgedy was that she was pretty, and it would by implication not been so tragic had she not been?



It would be tragic for any person attractive or not. In this case the lady was a model and it sounds like her career in that field is now over whereas if she had had some other profession she may have been able to continue it.

[bolkow]

I see, but yes, it is a tradgedy, I do agree.

[RainingLogic]

Stories like this impact people wanting to be around aircraft, fly in aircraft, buy planes, hire pilots.

No doubt this story will be one that I will have to discuss with some business owner in the future, just like 'so why did they crash that jet' type of question.

If you say the pilots were idiots, it sounds like sour grapes, if you are vague, it sounds wishy washy, if you defend the pilots, you sound like a suck up politician.

It's just a black eye I don't want to have to talk about.

[Island-Flyer]

Stories like this hopefully remind people to be more careful around dangerous equipment like aircraft. People like this lady live in such a bubble they've become oblivious to the dangers of the world. I think the pilot was in error for doing a hot pax dropoff, but you would think someone could make the loose connection between the rapidly spinning blade attached to the aircraft and danger. You don't need to be an aviator to know to avoid a prop with a wide berth. It also doesn't take a racecar driver to know not to cross a busy freeway, or a toxicologist to know not to drink bleach. People always seem to like to rely on the resident "professional", and forget that in the end the only person responsible for your safety is you.

[PURPLE PITOT]

Incorrect. In aviation, the only person responsible is the pilot in command.

[Island-Flyer]

@Purple Legally yes, but at the end of the day a pilot can't stop every person from doing strange things. I've seen over the course of my career two prop strikes. In the first, a group of people not affiliated with a flight were on the ramp watching aircraft. A King Air taxied in and the one of the bystanders lost her hat, she chased it from behind the aircraft and directly into the King Air's right prop as it was moving. The King Air PIC had no way to see the individual (single pilot sitting in the left seat and the victim came under the wing from behind) and he shut the engine down as soon as he felt the impact of the person's arm on the blade. That victim was maimed but survived thanks to the fact that ARFF had seen the accident.

In the second incident a DHC-8 in a rural airport was departing for a scheduled flight. A passenger that had missed the flight ran out and tried to stop the aircraft on an active taxiway. The crew had already cleared their wings prior to taxi and were not looking behind them. As the passenger approached the aircraft the captain spotted him and jammed them brakes. Before he could shut the engine down (mere seconds) the victim had run face-first into the left prop and was dead.

Do you believe these PIC's were responsible? They did everything in their power to avoid persons and followed all the proper ramp safety procedures.

The fact is that every person is responsible for their own safety. The PIC is responsible for the safety of the flight, but it's impossible to help someone that refuses to help themselves. Ramp safety is a matter of attention and diligence on everyone's part - pilots must pay attention to all ramp activity but people don't have eyes on the backs of their head. In the end it's a simple fact that passengers must be educated on the dangers around aircraft and be alert to those dangers.

[PURPLE PITOT]

I believe we are talking about a single pilot light aircraft, with a single passenger, for whom the PIC is totally responsible.

[Island-Flyer]

And I refer to my original reply in which I said this particular pilot was in error for the hot turn. I'm speaking on the greater subject of propeller safety. It's a hot topic where I work due to incidents like the ones I mentioned. Any means by which the public can be informed of the dangers of airport ramps is something we latch onto.

[NutLoose]

Poor girl, one wonders if it will increase with the new Cessna Skycatcher, the old 152 had the strut in front of the door to at least stop you or hinder you walking fwd... The 162 it is behind the door encouraging you to go fwd.

[RainingLogic]

I would like to believe she just screwed up, and the pilot was just to much of a moron to have had a talk with her about it....what I ponder is him coming off the breaks or having spun the aircraft around contributing to this. It happens on prop starts all the time.

[Wild Man]

Never seen a Husky with a LHS. I'll have to give the factory a call and check on that option!!

[Spunky Monkey]

I do hope she recovers soon and can move on with her life. What an absolutely awful thing to happen to a young lady.
It would be a little more sympathetic to change the title from "Fashion Model" to young lady. It would change the perceived background to the accident.

[His dudeness]

What an absolutely awful thing to happen to anyone

[Fullagas]

Some of the replies on this thread indicate a level of immaturity rarely seen on PPRuNe. Said writers should hope nothing like this happens to them or their loved ones. Quite despicable! :rolleyes:

There were mentions in other news sites that indicated she had deplaned, the pilot re-started and she turned back toward the aircraft to perhaps thank him. Quite plausible.

I hope she has an excellent recovery!