Mechanic sucked into jet engine

There are alot of myths out there about exactly what happens when someone is sucked ito a jet engine. Most of them are because the way it's depicted in Hollywood films. Well let me tell it like it is based on what I know(I used to be a ramp guy at Aloha airlines).

A jet engine will most likely not explode after ingesting a person nor will the fan blades just shear off. That's cooked up by Hollywood's love of pyrotechnics. An engine is designed to take quite a bit of punishment and still keep ticking although ingesting a person will screw it up quite a bit and cause a need for a major overhaul but not to the point where it blows up. It should usually shut down before that.

Let me enlighten those with a morbid curiousity of what happens when a person is ingested. It's pretty much instant death. You wouldn't feel much. And you would go straight through the engine in less than a second. I've seen pictures of a 55 gallon metal drum that got "eaten" by a engine on a 737(which is the same kind of aircraft involved in this latest tragedy, on a side note the 737 engines are the most dangerous because they are mounted so close to the ground). 2/3 of the drum was gone. Whatwas left was mangled pretty bad. Replace a steel drum with human flesh and you can imagine what would happen. And don't think mincemeat or hamburger. Puree is more like it.

Here's a link to some pics of the aircraft and engine involved in this accident.

www.clear-and-a-million.com...

I have seen CO mechanics crack the cowling with the engines running on 37’s before, so it might be something that is allowed under Co company policy in certain situations. Usually it seems like this was something they would do as a last minute fix before pushback, in order to get the plane out on time. I don’t recall specifically what they would do it for, though I think it had to do with the accessory package, but it used to make me nervous watching them crawl around the sides with it running. The ingestion area on a 37 at idling speed is 13 foot in front of the engine and 2 feet behind the leading edge.

Zaph I am sorry to say that you’re a bit wrong about going near the engine, On a 37 you have to be right next to it to access the forward cargo hold. As a matter of fact if you belt load it, there is only about a foot and a half from the loader to the leading edge. To jet start one you have to crawl under the belly of the plane between the running engines to the jet start port to disconnect the hose and close the flap, it’s very dangerous. I would not even trust my ramp agents to do this and always did it myself. The jetstart unit would sometime be partly inside the hazard circle just to get it close enough for the hose to even reach the port, it would have to be left hooked to a tug to give it added weight so it would not get sucked in.

As to the blades, it might just depend on the situation. I have seen birds knock out blades on these engines before, and there are pictures of exactly that out on the web if you care to search for them. Of course they hit the birds going at a much higher rate of speed.

Eh, I've been wrong before, I'm sure I'll be wrong again. But even if he was standing beside it, he should have been far enough to the side to stay out of the suction zone of the intake.

Does anyone else think this videos a fake?

uk.youtube.com...

Why does it cut? why does the man conveniently shout get out the way? why were they filming it?

Doesnt seem to add up