Anyone have any info on this?

https://www.statesman.com/news/20200507 ... icials-say

A watch commander for the Austin Police Department said the deceased person was not dressed as an airport worker and did not have ID.

http://cbsaustin.com/news/local/ems-per ... bia-runway

Honestly shocking that airport security didn't catch the person trespassing beforehand.

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-airport-plane-runway-death/269-6efa66e7-bbf2-4fa7-9131-01058f61f532

The plane operated WN 1392, from DAL. Runway 17R is currently closed.

MavyWavyATR wrote:

Honestly shocking that airport security didn't catch the person trespassing beforehand.

AUS has had several people jump the fence onto the field.

Someone on twitter said it was a coworker of their kid at worldwide freight services. Obviously unconfirmed.

[*]

rajincajun01 wrote:

MavyWavyATR wrote:

Honestly shocking that airport security didn't catch the person trespassing beforehand.

AUS has had several people jump the fence onto the field.

I could definitely see that. The fence off of 183 is not terribly high. It's also far enough away that a person would probably not be seen by the authorities.

Jshank83 wrote:

Someone on twitter said it was a coworker of their kid at worldwide freight services. Obviously unconfirmed.

Probably mean Worldwide Flight Services?

Ishrion wrote:

That is not good.



https://twitter.com/krisvancleave/statu ... 8403745792

Oh my

A human did that damage to a landing airceaft?! Wow!

Fliplot wrote:

A human did that damage to a landing airceaft?! Wow!

Ever seen what happens to a car if you hit a deer (~100kg) at 100km/h. You can be lucky if the car is not totalled. So depending how fast the aircraft was, this is a relatively small damage or the nacelle is really sturdy.

Ishrion wrote:

That is not good.



https://twitter.com/krisvancleave/statu ... 8403745792

So I guess that the body htted the outer side of the nacelle very hard, and then...absorbed by the engine?

Well it seems painful, aww

Fliplot wrote:

A human did that damage to a landing airceaft?! Wow!

Have you seen what a 10 pound goose does? What did you expect from a person who could have weighed over 20 times as much?

426Shadow wrote:

Have you seen what a 10 pound goose does? What did you expect from a person who could have weighed over 20 times as much?

Captain Sullenberger agrees with that comment.

What a tragedy for everyone involved. Perhaps the pilots have seen the person on the runway and couldn't avoid him or they heard suddenly a big bang and discovered this when they checked the engine .

I don't think the person has been sucked in the engine, cause otherwise it would have exploded and the plane would have been engulfed in flames so it might be reparable, but who cares about an engine if somebody has died.

On liveatc.net, it starts at 11:45 into the archive for Tower #1 at AUS, with DL819 (an A220 with a very clear radio) calling in and being cleared to land. WN is given taxi instructions and says "standby". WN then tells TWR that they believe there's a person on the runway. TWR tells DL819 to go around, and asks where WN sees the person. WN says, "Well, they're behind us, they're behind us now." (Uh...yeah.) TWR then asks them if they saw the person as they were touching down. WN answers affirmative. Interestingly, when TWR gives them taxi instructions to get to the gate, they say that they just want to pull off on Golf and hold position. Sounds possible that they saw (or heard or felt or imagined) more than they were willing to say on the radio, and didn't want to leave the scene.

The emergency response unfolds from there.

The interviews with the passengers on the left side of the plane are going to be interesting. Horrifying.

Tragic event, will be interesting to find out how that person got onto the movement area. Barring a split second or two of seeing the aircraft coming and not being able to do anything death would have been instantaneous. What struck me is that there were 54 people on the aircraft in the current situation. About 40% load factor which is not good but is better than expected now. Without researching Southwest flight schedules assuming this route used to be multiple frequencies probably reduced to one flight a day now.

PANAMsterdam wrote:

. Perhaps the pilots have seen the person on the runway and couldn't avoid him or they heard suddenly a big bang and discovered this when they checked the engine .

I don't think the person has been sucked in the engine, cause otherwise it would have exploded and the plane would have been engulfed in flames so it might be reparable, but who cares about an engine if somebody has died.

Doubt the pilots discovered anything when "checking the engine". They called in immediately after stopping the aircraft, as they were about to clear the runway. They said on the radio that they saw somebody as they were touching down. The air cargo ramp is a small distance to the left of the threshhold of runway 17R, not a huge walk from one of those buildings to the early parts of that runway.

If the person were sucked into the engine at idle, I don't know the result. I do know that when a mechanic was sucked into a 737 engine in a horrible accident about 12 years ago, it was running at a higher power during a ground test. It didn't explode. It didn't even stop. It just brought him through. I know the details but don't care to repeat them. Suffice it to say that there would be no explosion.

That they appear to have found a "person who had no ID on him" suggests that he was not sucked into the engine, because finding anything intact answers the question.

wjcandee wrote:

PANAMsterdam wrote:

. Perhaps the pilots have seen the person on the runway and couldn't avoid him or they heard suddenly a big bang and discovered this when they checked the engine .

I don't think the person has been sucked in the engine, cause otherwise it would have exploded and the plane would have been engulfed in flames so it might be reparable, but who cares about an engine if somebody has died.

Doubt the pilots discovered anything when "checking the engine". They called in immediately after stopping the aircraft, as they were about to clear the runway. They said on the radio that they saw somebody as they were touching down. The air cargo ramp is a small distance to the left of the threshhold of runway 17R, not a huge walk from one of those buildings to the early parts of that runway.

If the person were sucked into the engine at idle, I don't know the result. I do know that when a mechanic was sucked into a 737 engine in a horrible accident about 12 years ago, it was running at a higher power during a ground test. It didn't explode. It didn't even stop. It just brought him through. I know the details but don't care to repeat them. Suffice it to say that there would be no explosion.

That they appear to have found a "person who had no ID on him" suggests that he was not sucked into the engine, because finding anything intact answers the question.

I agree that the person was not ingested.

17R/35L is surrounded by flat land with no obstacles for at least 1/4 mile in all directions. The cloud ceiling was not that low. This was no accident.

Western727 wrote:

wjcandee wrote:

PANAMsterdam wrote:

. Perhaps the pilots have seen the person on the runway and couldn't avoid him or they heard suddenly a big bang and discovered this when they checked the engine .

I don't think the person has been sucked in the engine, cause otherwise it would have exploded and the plane would have been engulfed in flames so it might be reparable, but who cares about an engine if somebody has died.

Doubt the pilots discovered anything when "checking the engine". They called in immediately after stopping the aircraft, as they were about to clear the runway. They said on the radio that they saw somebody as they were touching down. The air cargo ramp is a small distance to the left of the threshhold of runway 17R, not a huge walk from one of those buildings to the early parts of that runway.

If the person were sucked into the engine at idle, I don't know the result. I do know that when a mechanic was sucked into a 737 engine in a horrible accident about 12 years ago, it was running at a higher power during a ground test. It didn't explode. It didn't even stop. It just brought him through. I know the details but don't care to repeat them. Suffice it to say that there would be no explosion.

That they appear to have found a "person who had no ID on him" suggests that he was not sucked into the engine, because finding anything intact answers the question.

I agree that the person was not ingested.

17R/35L is surrounded by flat land with no obstacles for at least 1/4 mile in all directions. The cloud ceiling was not that low. This was no accident.

I’m also doubting they were ingested by the engine. Does anybody recall the photos of the ramper that was ingested by the the engine of a CO 737-500 in ELP, circa 2003 ish?
Gruesome does not even begin to describe it.

slcguy wrote:

Tragic event, will be interesting to find out how that person got onto the movement area. Barring a split second or two of seeing the aircraft coming and not being able to do anything death would have been instantaneous. What struck me is that there were 54 people on the aircraft in the current situation. About 40% load factor which is not good but is better than expected now. Without researching Southwest flight schedules assuming this route used to be multiple frequencies probably reduced to one flight a day now.

DAL-AUS is at 3x daily

wjcandee wrote:

The interviews with the passengers on the left side of the plane are going to be interesting. Horrifying.

Would you even see anything out the port side windows at 200 mph in the dark? Would have happened pretty quick.

MavyWavyATR wrote:

Honestly shocking that airport security didn't catch the person trespassing beforehand.

Fun fact. Airports aren't impenetrable fortresses. They're still quite easy to get inside its perimeter.

Reports I heard on Dallas TV news this morning indicated that the pilot did see the victim, tried to avoid, but could not.

El Paso accident was 2006.
https://www.ntsb.gov/about/employment/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief2.aspx?akey=1&ev_id=20060131X00140&ntsbno=DFW06FA056

Ishrion wrote:

That is not good.



https://twitter.com/krisvancleave/statu ... 8403745792

The damage to the Southwest airplane is not important compared to the death of the man or woman that it hit.

RIP

bob75013 wrote:

Reports I heard on Dallas TV news this morning indicated that the pilot did see the victim, tried to avoid, but could not.

In the end there really is not much you can do to avoid. You are moving quickly while slowly down and it takes time to get airborne again, and you can’t quickly adjust the path of the aircraft unless you want to risk a potentially violent crash that kills half your passengers just to avoid one person on the runway.

The amount of psychological damage that people are suffering during this, be it through job loss, isolation, domestic abuse, illness, or all of the above, is the new Mount Everest we have before us as the clouds begin to clear. The amount of suicides, even in strange ways such as this and even the QX 400 incident, will be immense.

Be well out there.

Acey wrote:

Would you even see anything out the port side windows at 200 mph in the dark? Would have happened pretty quick.

It wouldn't have been dark just yet in Austin; that's right around sunset this time of year.

Incident or accident?

I think the running count is up to 3 now at Southwest. How unfortunate for all involved parties. What the heck was this person thinking. Condolences to the family of the deceased.

MavyWavyATR wrote:

Honestly shocking that airport security didn't catch the person trespassing beforehand.

Shocking?? I think you need to adjust your understanding/expectations of “airport security.”

This has to be a suicide? Semi daylight entering an airport and walking into an oncoming 737. Being that close to a 737 landing even if you are deaf you know it’s coming. I can’t believe anyone can accidentally walk into a jet that’s travelling around 100mph!

Not sure why some “doubt he/she wasnt ingested, I would say it’s 100% certain they weren’t, impossible to get that damage if something is going through the engine?

Thoughts with the family though, they won’t be getting any respite from this as I’m sure it’s plastered over the local news networks.

Wes...

This notion that airports are somehow protected like a Bond villian's underground lair is preposterous. That this kind of thing doesn't happen more is a factor of people just dont hop the fence very often vs. them being caught by a crack defensive team. Mostly, these are low-bidder contractors armed with nothing but a walkie-talkie, driving around in four-cylinder Ford Rangers with blinky lights on the roof

IFlyVeryLittle wrote:

This notion that airports are somehow protected like a Bond villian's underground lair is preposterous. That this kind of thing doesn't happen more is a factor of people just dont hop the fence very often vs. them being caught by a crack defensive team. Mostly, these are low-bidder contractors armed with nothing but a walkie-talkie, driving around in four-cylinder Ford Rangers with blinky lights on the roof

I was under the impression most international airports had a dedicated police force? Austin certainly does.

Suicide by aircraft? I can think of easier ways.

bmartino99 wrote:

IFlyVeryLittle wrote:

This notion that airports are somehow protected like a Bond villian's underground lair is preposterous. That this kind of thing doesn't happen more is a factor of people just dont hop the fence very often vs. them being caught by a crack defensive team. Mostly, these are low-bidder contractors armed with nothing but a walkie-talkie, driving around in four-cylinder Ford Rangers with blinky lights on the roof

I was under the impression most international airports had a dedicated police force? Austin certainly does.

Yeah? Cities have dedicated police forces and crimes still occur.

At first, I was thinking this is case of a person getting a high stakes "thrill", getting a low pass or ducking under wing - kind of an ultimate "Princess Juliana" experience; which still could be.

But the more I think about it, I'm leaning the idea that it was suicide, specifically with the idea of jumping into the engine; they just missed (but achieved the overall goal).

Folks, I'm reading posts from people stating whether the pilots knew they hit someone because of radio transmissions. We're not steering a multi million pound oil tanker. When I'm on approach, my feet are on the rudder pedals. When I hit a small bird the size of a quail, I can feel vibrations in the rudder pedals from body of the tiny bird tapping the wing. If I can feel the tapping of a small quail sized bird, they definitely felt/saw when they hit a 180 pound human. No question.

FluidFlow wrote:

Fliplot wrote:

A human did that damage to a landing airceaft?! Wow!

Ever seen what happens to a car if you hit a deer (~100kg) at 100km/h. You can be lucky if the car is not totalled. So depending how fast the aircraft was, this is a relatively small damage or the nacelle is really sturdy.

Here's what happens when birds hit an A400M:

https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1445915

johns624 wrote:

bmartino99 wrote:

IFlyVeryLittle wrote:

This notion that airports are somehow protected like a Bond villian's underground lair is preposterous. That this kind of thing doesn't happen more is a factor of people just dont hop the fence very often vs. them being caught by a crack defensive team. Mostly, these are low-bidder contractors armed with nothing but a walkie-talkie, driving around in four-cylinder Ford Rangers with blinky lights on the roof

I was under the impression most international airports had a dedicated police force? Austin certainly does.

Yeah? Cities have dedicated police forces and crimes still occur.

I wasn't trying to imply that police forces eliminate all crime. I was merely pointing out that most airports have a bit more than low-bid contractors.

bmartino99 wrote:

johns624 wrote:

bmartino99 wrote:

I was under the impression most international airports had a dedicated police force? Austin certainly does.

Yeah? Cities have dedicated police forces and crimes still occur.

I wasn't trying to imply that police forces eliminate all crime. I was merely pointing out that most airports have a bit more than low-bid contractors.

Do you remember when JFK had a wayward boater wandering around on the airport? He made it all the way to the Delta terminal. “Boater’s strange odyssey exposes gap in JFK airport security,” is the headline of the LA times article.

B737Captain1980 wrote:

Folks, I'm reading posts from people stating whether the pilots knew they hit someone because of radio transmissions. We're not steering a multi million pound oil tanker. When I'm on approach, my feet are on the rudder pedals. When I hit a small bird the size of a quail, I can feel vibrations in the rudder pedals from body of the tiny bird tapping the wing. If I can feel the tapping of a small quail sized bird, they definitely felt/saw when they hit a 180 pound human. No question.

Dumb question: is there a big (or any) difference in sensitivity to that small quail if it strikes after all gear have touched down vs still being a few feet in the air? My common sense instinct tells me that with full weight on the ground, the sensitivity would be much less. True or not? But yes, I get that a full size human would be felt at landing speed, regardless.

Dumb question 2: at your maximum flare, what is the approximate distance in front of the the aircraft do you think you see the runway at? Meaning, whats the span of the "blind spot" in front of you? (I know this varies alot).

thank you for your input, Captain.

bmartino99 wrote:

IFlyVeryLittle wrote:

This notion that airports are somehow protected like a Bond villian's underground lair is preposterous. That this kind of thing doesn't happen more is a factor of people just dont hop the fence very often vs. them being caught by a crack defensive team. Mostly, these are low-bidder contractors armed with nothing but a walkie-talkie, driving around in four-cylinder Ford Rangers with blinky lights on the roof

I was under the impression most international airports had a dedicated police force? Austin certainly does.

I'm pretty confident that dedicated police unit spends the vast majority of its time and resources in the small enclosed areas where people are, vs the outlying large outdoor spaces where the flight ops actually take place.

wjcandee wrote:

On liveatc.net, it starts at 11:45 into the archive for Tower #1 at AUS, with DL819 (an A220 with a very clear radio) calling in and being cleared to land. WN is given taxi instructions and says "standby". WN then tells TWR that they believe there's a person on the runway. TWR tells DL819 to go around, and asks where WN sees the person. WN says, "Well, they're behind us, they're behind us now." (Uh...yeah.) TWR then asks them if they saw the person as they were touching down. WN answers affirmative. Interestingly, when TWR gives them taxi instructions to get to the gate, they say that they just want to pull off on Golf and hold position. Sounds possible that they saw (or heard or felt or imagined) more than they were willing to say on the radio, and didn't want to leave the scene.

The emergency response unfolds from there.

The interviews with the passengers on the left side of the plane are going to be interesting. Horrifying.

I just tried to find this and could not. I hear ASH6100 land, and I hear SWA171 land. 1392 should have been 4 mins behind. I never hear DAL819 going around, but I do hear him landing on the LEFT side. Its as if its been omitted. Can anyone confirm?

FlyHappy wrote:

I'm pretty confident that dedicated police unit spends the vast majority of its time and resources in the small enclosed areas where people are, vs the outlying large outdoor spaces where the flight ops actually take place.

The ABIA airport security is patrolling the perimeter of the airport perimeter quite often. Also police is checking up the perimeter from the outside. However, they typically do not control so much the movement of the people which already are airside. If this was a guy from the cargo ramp just snapping and committing suicide, there is very low chance the security team would intervene.

chrisjake wrote:

wjcandee wrote:

On liveatc.net, it starts at 11:45 into the archive for Tower #1 at AUS, with DL819 (an A220 with a very clear radio) calling in and being cleared to land. WN is given taxi instructions and says "standby". WN then tells TWR that they believe there's a person on the runway. TWR tells DL819 to go around, and asks where WN sees the person. WN says, "Well, they're behind us, they're behind us now." (Uh...yeah.) TWR then asks them if they saw the person as they were touching down. WN answers affirmative. Interestingly, when TWR gives them taxi instructions to get to the gate, they say that they just want to pull off on Golf and hold position. Sounds possible that they saw (or heard or felt or imagined) more than they were willing to say on the radio, and didn't want to leave the scene.

The emergency response unfolds from there.

The interviews with the passengers on the left side of the plane are going to be interesting. Horrifying.

I just tried to find this and could not. I hear ASH6100 land, and I hear SWA171 land. 1392 should have been 4 mins behind. I never hear DAL819 going around, but I do hear him landing on the LEFT side. Its as if its been omitted. Can anyone confirm?

You're too far down the tape. Stop thinking about where it should be, and go to where it IS, which is 11:45 on the tape.

Years ago at PDX myself and one of my ramp guys were standing under one of our TWA L1011's at about 2am when he pointed at the runway and said hey, what is that? we looked as thus guy came walking up to us from across runway 10L/28R carrying a gas can. Said he ran out of gas on Marine drive and was wondering if we knew where he could find some. Told my ramp guy to wait with him and I will call someone who can help, the airport police. Don't know if he ever got his gas.

wjcandee wrote:

On liveatc.net, it starts at 11:45 into the archive for Tower #1 at AUS, with DL819 (an A220 with a very clear radio) calling in and being cleared to land. WN is given taxi instructions and says "standby". WN then tells TWR that they believe there's a person on the runway. TWR tells DL819 to go around, and asks where WN sees the person. WN says, "Well, they're behind us, they're behind us now." (Uh...yeah.) TWR then asks them if they saw the person as they were touching down. WN answers affirmative. Interestingly, when TWR gives them taxi instructions to get to the gate, they say that they just want to pull off on Golf and hold position. Sounds possible that they saw (or heard or felt or imagined) more than they were willing to say on the radio, and didn't want to leave the scene.

The emergency response unfolds from there.

The interviews with the passengers on the left side of the plane are going to be interesting. Horrifying.

11:45 into which archive? what's the zulu time?

At DTW, I mainly see the police officers in the terminals. They have rent-a-cops patrolling the fence lines and checking that access gates are locked.