Ansett F27 - Baggage Handler Killed 1975

[boaccomet4]

Can anybody from Ansett remember the evening an Ansett baggage handler walked into the prop of a Fokker Friendship taxying onto the ramp in Sydney. I think the regstration of the aircraft was VH-MOR. He was fatally injured and a female passenger who was on the aircraft went into shock. I was working for TAA that night and we got news of it very quickly. Would appreciate a more accurate account of the incident from someone from Ansett.

[Fris B. Fairing]

boaccomet4

According to Ansett historian Fred Niven it was VH-MMR and the date was 13 June 1975 and it was Sydney.

Rgds

[onetrack]

boaccomet4 - You could try perusing the SMH online for mid-June 1975 to see if there was any report on the incident.
I did a quick search of the June 15, 1975 copy of the newspaper, but the overwhelming aviation news of the day was a tragic air crash of a Piper Cherokee near Scone that killed a mother and father.
Two small children of the couple escaped uninjured and went for help, and were found by sheer luck, by a farmer on horseback 6 hrs later, in freezing conditions and in mountainous terrain.
I couldn't find any reference to the incident you describe in that copy, and there was no copy of the newspaper on June 14, 1975. The propellor incident may have missed the newspapers completely.

Google News Archive Search - SMH (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=lL5f5cZgq8MC)

[Propstop]

I remember it as I was working for TAA at the time. If I recall he was a very experienced baggage handler 20+ years, but if your mind is elsewhere at the time these accidents happen. The F27 had both fwd and rear baggage holds.
It did make all of us more aware as we handled East-West Airlines F27.

[Aviast]

Here's a news article - doesn't provide any more detail though.

14 Jun 1975 - IN BRIEF Theatre at Jamison (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110642108)

[Dora-9]

I've got some very vague memories of this - it was described to me as a night time incident, he walked forward into the prop, the engine had been cut but was still rotating at a high rate.

Awful!

[john_tullamarine]

Very shortly before I joined the company.

My recollections of the story at the time are that the unfortunate chap lost SA, put his head down in the rain, and basically ran/walked quickly through the spinning prop disc. The story I had was that the engine was operating and that the outcome was not at all comforting to those present.

[Eastwest Loco]

Very nasty indeed.

F27 props carry a lot of inertial mass.

I do recall a TN LAME despatching TQR on freighter duty ex HBA accidentally reversed the ground power into the prop on No. 2 after disconnecting.

The cart was virtually eaten by the prop and even though no shrapnel hit him directly some hit the back of the Toyota tug seat and caused internal injuries that were the end of him.

TQR was ferried back to MEL with holes in the fuselage from the shrapnel at under 10000 feet by a different crew. The guys on the flight deck that night were traumatised as we can imagine.

One incident at Wynyard that sticks in my mind was with Col Smith, an elder statesman porter that some of the older ex F27 pilots may remember. Col at that time was well over 70 and part time portered for us at TN. Little bloke and blocky build but strong as an ox.

Col came around the nose of the F27 and headed toward the steps that had just been put in place. No. 1 prop was still turning and Col was wearing an Akubra style hat as he always did.

I hit the tarmac with him less than a foot from walking straight into it, nearly wound down but still slowly spinning. I had no hope to even call out, but the Gods were smiling on Col. A blade tipped the front brim of the hat and the next one tipped the rear as he walked through.

Unbelievable - God must have been on his side. I still get the horrors thinking of it.

All my staff in later years were taught to NEVER walk through the plane of rotation of a propeller. it doesn't matter if the engines are shut down or not - JUST DON'T GO THERE. It is a bit distressing watching the guys here and in MEL and elsewhere just floating through the plane of rotation without a thought.

Maybe that is another thing that has been lost through the years.

Quel domage.

best all

EWL

[4SPOOLED]

I did the same thing myself with a metro prop circa 2008.

I was spinning the prop after shutdown as any good effo does. The baggage handler at the rear of the ship called out asking what was being offloaded. I walked straight through the disk, was struck behind the head on the back of my neck and pinned to the ground with the blade.

It can happen in a moment of stupidity and I often think about that day.

Luckily the only thing hurt was my pride.

[TBM-Legend]

Winrye engineer walked into a Turbo Commander [VH-JWO] prop at BK one evening on shut-down and somehow survived!

[Gove N.T.]

I remember an incident with an MMA F27, parked at Port Hedland when a loader decided to stop one of the props ticking over being lifted off and over because his ring finger was caught in a jag at the edge of the prop. He lost his finger. He was not the brightest individual. We worked both MMA and Ansett F27s and were warned most vehemently about the dangers of walking on the ramp and around aircraft. But it happens and people wonder how

[bankrunner]

It must take a hell of a lot of exposure to cause people to become that complacent.

Getting under a Saab to disconnect the battery cart after start used to make me pretty nervous and kept me on my toes, despite doing it quite regularly at one stage. I can't say I've ever wanted to get closer than that to a spinning prop.

[Super Ord]

Working on P-3's in the late 90's, the frequency of the props in ground idle coupled with the aircraft strobes at night would give the illusion of all four prop discs being stationary.

After a particularly protracted period of night exercises, upon taxing in, we watched a ground handler drive the tug and GPU to a position in front of no. 3. The groundie then proceeded to drag the power lead through the props to the ground power plug. Fire handles we're pulled, but far to late to be effective. As luck would have it, the groundie passed between the fuse and no. 3 prop disc, and was none the wiser until surrounded by very excited ground and flight crew.

The lesson?, fatigue, complacency and illusions are killers.

[zlin77]

Air Ambulance Nursing Sister walked into a Queenair prop in YSSY one wet and windy night, head down and trudging across the tarmac……Golfer Jack Newton also at YSSY decided to the test the force required to stop a Continental 520..about half a newton..!!

[Worrals in the wilds]

It can happen in a moment of stupidity and I often think about that day.Many years ago I walked into a stationary prop and came out with nothing more than a split lip and a scar I still have to remember my stupidity :ouch:. I was helping the refueller set up his ladder, task focussed and simply didn't see it.

It was a minor incident, but caused by the same malady that has led to death and massive injuries; not thinking about where I was and what I was doing while working around an aircraft. If it had been spinning I wouldn't be here; it wasn't and I'd like to think I'd have taken more care if it was, but I didn't really plan to walk into it while it was stationary either :}.

Take care all of you, and RIP to the deceased. Trust me; one dopey moment and it could be any of us, so don't have a dopey moment.

[organic3]

I sent the link to this PPrune post to my Father and this was his reply:


Good Morning Son,
Thanks for that article, i was indeed involved in the incident, and came in that night at 2200hrs for night shift. My first job of the night was to take the mobile water truck down the tarmac to the F27 parking area, and wash what wasw left of the poor porter off the tarmac, once the Federal Police had finished collecting the larger bits!!
The man who was killed had the job of placing the stairs at the rear of the aircraft, and then unloading the forward baggage area. His fatal mistake was walking along the fuselage to get to the front locker, because their is not much clearance between the left hand prop and the fuselage, and even though the engine had been shutdown, the props on an F27 take up to eighty seconds to run down, and of course there is hardly any sound in this situation.
It took quite a while for me and my mates on that shift to get over that tragic event, and hopefully made us all aware of the dangers of working on a busy tarmac.
Take care old boy, your Dad.