US air force finds contractor who walked into propeller had become disorientated

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 197 points – 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.

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the air force materiel command accident investigation board said it found two causes for the incident.

“First,” the board said, “the test engineer was incorrectly instructed or trained on how to take telemetry readings when approaching the MQ-9A while the engine was running. Second, she lost situational awareness while walking around the mishap aircraft taking telemetry readings with a hand-held measurement device.”

Yeah, no one warned her how deadly this was and not thinking about she walked right into that propeller looking down. Not sure that relieves them or fault but definitely an accurate assessment of what happened

There's fault on both sides. The Air Force for not training her properly, and her for walking around operating equipment without paying attention to things that'll kill you.

Legally, though, the Air Force is probably going to pay out for her death.

The military is a lot more tolerant about working around running aircraft than civilians. Nominally there's a lot more training/drilling/etc to keep situational awareness up... But also occasionally someone walks into a prop or gets sucked into a jet.

I'm sure this'll spawn a new series of briefings.

Not sure how it'll work with any payouts since she was a contractor. In general you're being paid more at the cost of less of the compensation packages that service members get.

“Others began shouting and waving to get [Cosme’s] attention as well,” the report said.

They warned her, but she didn’t look up. It’s horrible that they had to witness that.

Oh no, you don't hear anything near a running plane. Shouting at the time is pissing in the wind. Definitely on her a bit for not checking in often around a moving death machine. But shouting over the whir doesn't count.

Still truly awful to witness anything that horrific. As someone that has, the right answer is absolutely to look away and don't let anyone tell you, you are wrong to.

I’m sorry you had to witness that. It’s good advice, but I can’t imagine logic taking over instinctive desire to stop them. Let’s hope neither of us need this advice in the future.