Police and federal officials are investigating the death of a man who climbed into the engine of a Delta Air Lines plane at Salt Lake City International Airport, a major hub for Atlanta-based Delta.
Salt Lake City police said an airport store manager reported a disturbance involving a passenger at around 9:52 p.m. on New Year’s Day. Officers responded.
Within a few minutes, dispatchers at the airport’s control center notified police that a man had breached an emergency exit in the terminal, according to police.
As officers began searching for the man, dispatchers provided more information to them, including a description of him and his last known location, according to a timeline provided by police. Then, airport employees told officers that a pilot reported seeing the man. Police asked that air traffic control be notified.
At 10:06 p.m., officers and airport workers found clothing and shoes on an airport runway, and dispatchers then told officers the man was at an airport deicing pad. Dispatchers soon told officers the man was underneath a plane and had “accessed the engine,” according to the police timeline.
Police said officers asked air traffic control to tell the pilot to shut down the plane’s engines.
At 10:08 p.m., officers found a man unconscious and “partially inside” the engine of a plane on the deicing pad, the timeline said.
“The aircraft’s engines were rotating. The specific stage of engine operation remains under investigation,” according to Salt Lake City police.
Officers and airport workers pulled the man out and began lifesaving effort, including CPR and administering naloxone, a medication that rapidly reverses opioid overdoses.
The man — who police identified as 30-year-old Park City, Utah resident Kyler Efinger — died on the scene, officials said. He was a ticketed passenger with a boarding pass to Denver, Colorado, they said Tuesday.
Police said they plan to work with the medical examiner’s office “to confirm the cause and manner of death, which may include a toxicology report.”
The Airbus A220-100 plane involved — Delta Flight 2348 to San Francisco — returned to a gate, and the flight was canceled.
Salt Lake City police, the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and Transportation Security Administration are investigating.
Delta said it is “fully cooperating with all aviation authority and law enforcement investigations.”
Police said they do not plan to release any other information pending the autopsy.
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