SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 2, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Salt Lake City police detectives are conducting a death investigation at the Salt Lake City International Airport.
According to a prepared statement by the SLCPD PR Unit a “30-year-old man died after he accessed an airport deicing pad and entered an aircraft’s engine intake cowling.
“The aircraft’s engines were not running, based on the preliminary investigation,” the statement said.
This investigation began Monday about 9:52 p.m. when a store manager inside the airport “reported a disturbance involving a passenger on the secured side of the terminal.”
It was determined the passenger accessed the airport’s ramp area from the emergency exit, the SLCPD statement said.
A statement released by SLC International said the man then “ran to the south end of the airport’s west runway where deicing operations were underway and crawled into an aircraft engine that was not running.”
At approximately 10:10 p.m., “the man was found unconscious inside a wing-mounted engine of an occupied commercial aircraft on the deicing pad,” SLCPD said.
“SLCPD officers, Airport Operations, and the Salt Lake City Fire Department performed lifesaving efforts, but the man died on scene.”
“It is unclear at this time what injuries caused the man’s death whose name is being withheld upon notification of family members,” the SLC International Airport statement said.
The Delta Airbus A220-100 flight was headed to SFO from SLC.
The Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, SLCPD and Transportation Security Administration will continue investigate the incident.
Photo by Gephardt Daily photojournalist Monico Garza/SLCScanner
