The Regional carrier Piedmont Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines, must pay a hefty fine after being found guilty of breaking safety rules, resulting in the death of a passenger service agent for the company.
After the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the guilty ruling after investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Courtney Edwards, a 34-year-old ground agent for Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama, who was sucked into an aircraft engine in 2022 while working.
On June 7, the agency ruled Piedmont was guilty of “a serious breach of safety,” and mandated the airline pay a fine for the multiple ways employees were confused about work protocol — making mistakes that resulted in the woman’s death, according to SimplyFlying.com.
OSHA issued a General Duty Clause violation, fining Piedmont an initial penalty of $15,625. This fine is the maximum penalty allowed by law for a serious violation such as this.
“At 3:45 p.m. on December 31, 2022, an employee was acting as a wing walker for an arriving aircraft when she walked directly in front of an idling turbofan engine and was sucked into the engine and was killed,” the investigation findings show.
A probe into the incident revealed Edwards died because supervisors were not clear when communicating to staffers about safety measures, and provided ineffective training.
OSHA determined the confusion about instructions was part of the reason why the mother of three came too close to an Embraer E175’s engine while working on her shift at the Montgomery Regional Airport. The proximity to the engine proved to be dangerous, thus resulting in the ingestion.
The finding reportedly contradicts preliminary statements issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.
In January, the NTSB stated the ground crew was briefed twice before the plane’s arrival. Originally, it was said that these workers were told not to approach the aircraft…
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