[Blaze] The airport crew member who died horrifically a few weeks ago when she stepped in front of a plane engine was repeatedly warned about the impending dangers, according to a report issued on Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Courtney Edwards, a 34-year-old mother of three children, was a Piedmont Airlines ground handling agent at Montgomery Regional Airport. Shortly before 3 p.m. on New Year's Eve, she and other ground crew members gathered for two brief safety meetings because the captain of an approaching plane had radioed ahead to warn everyone that he would keep the engines running for a two-minute cooling-off period after the plane landed. The in-cabin auxiliary power unit had apparently not been working.
Crews were instructed to steer clear of the engines until they had been informed that the engines were no longer running and the yellow warning light had been turned off. After the Envoy Air Embraer 170 plane from Dallas landed and the right engine was in the process of powering down, the plane's first officer opened his window and reiterated to crew members that the engines were still running. By that time, one crew member had noticed that Edwards had nearly been knocked over by the plane's exhaust and issued yet another warning for Edwards to give the engines a wide berth. |