US air force finds contractor who walked into propeller had become disorientated
theguardian.com
Stephanie Cosme, 32, was killed last year when she inadvertently walked into the rotating propeller of an aircraft in California
A US air force civilian contractor had become disoriented recording data at an airport in California last year when she walked into a jet’s rotating propeller and was killed, officials said on Friday.
In a statement outlining the findings of a report into the contractor’s death, the air force materiel command said that 32-year-old Stephanie Cosme was mortally injured on 7 September when she inadvertently walked into the rotating propeller of an MQ-9A that was parked at Gray Butte airfield.
You are viewing a single comment
There are all kinds of civilians working for the military. This isn't some active war zone where she stepped on a land mine. Every civilian doing work on an airport tar mac doesn't require a military member holding their hand to tell them not to walk into spinning proppellers. Blaming this on the military vs just an unfortunate accident is just ridiculous
Huh. It appears the investigation shows she was trained incorrectly.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/05/us-air-force-contractor-death-stephanie-cosme
That doesn't make you right. That's very different from expecting a military member to follow her around to keep her safe. The training likely would have come from the contracting company she was working for, not the military
My comment/edit was really more of an update on the incident than a vindication of my initial reaction, though there's some of that too.
You wrote:
That's false. Even the military themself admitted as much. Facts matter...
EDIT: I was right:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/05/us-air-force-contractor-death-stephanie-cosme
I don't think anyone's claiming it was during the chaos of wartime, but it was an active airfield. So yes, it's their responsibility to limit access, keep track of everyone, and keep both pedestrians and vehicles/aircraft safe.
I guarantee she had access lol. Getting access to a flight line is not as difficult as you're making it out to be.
If her job duties included...you know, being on the flight line (as it sounds like her contract absolutely was,) all she had to do was get the SMO to verify her clearance, verify her job duties, assign her a RAB, and she's good to go. Guaranteed she had all of the correct clearances and authorizations.
If you've got access to the area, nobody is going to follow you around and "keep track of everyone."
I know this because I had all of this access as a civilian contractor when working on a military installation.