New Zealand aircraft engineer killed in t-56 air intake

[System Message]

Miles Hunter 51 was sucked into the air intake of a t-56 C-130 engine running on a test stand with no propellor.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... easley.jpg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1URZN2dRp

[nutbutter]

gnarly dude

[iflyforpie]

Not sure how that is even possible. I've been down the intake of the pretty much identical Allison 501D and it is a pretty tight squeeze. You'd never make it past the torquemeter shroud into the compressors...

[Troubleshot]

did any stories mention if the prop was attached? Seems more likely that he got tangled up in that. And if the reports are accurate about no prop...how the hell did he get in there? (small space as Pie mentioned)

[nutbutter]

maybe he didn't get in, maybe he just got far enough in there for it to be fatal. Might have been a real mess...

[grimey]

did any stories mention if the prop was attached? Seems more likely that he got tangled up in that. And if the reports are accurate about no prop...how the hell did he get in there? (small space as Pie mentioned)

Several of the articles I've read specifically said there was no prop attached. It was in a testing rig inside the building. Anyway, it sounds more like the guy died from suffocation or blood loss than from having a large part of his body being sent through the compressors. I don't know what the geometry of the intake is like, but if his hands got into the compressors and he was stuck in there, he could potentially have bled to death before the removed his body. He also might have suffocated depending on how hard he was jammed in there. They apparently performed CPR after they got him out, so it probably wasn't as big of a mess at a lot of us are probably imagining.