Delta mechanic is killed on job at MSP

Malko

Malko

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Delta mechanic is killed on job at MSP
By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: June 15, 2010 - 8:59 AM
A Delta mechanic was killed early Tuesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport while working on an airliner that was to depart later in the morning, spokesmen for the airport and the airline said.

Emergency medical personnel called to Gate G14 about 5:30 a.m. discovered a Delta mechanic unconscious inside one of the Airbus' three gear doors where the wheels come out, said airport spokesman Patrick Hogan.

Hogan said the worker was somehow injured while on the job.

The A319 was "being prepared for scheduled service this morning," said Delta spokesman Anthony Black.

There was "no impact to the operations" of the airline, Black said.

"We express our deepest sympathies to his family and friends," Black said. "We offer full support to them and our employees in Minneapolis."

The mechanic's identity will be released once his family is notified, Black said.

The Hennepin County medical examiner's office was still on the scene hours later, he said, investigating the death.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
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No impact to the operations of the airline?

Wrong, wrong, wrong! One of their own died! Very much an IMPACT.

RIP to the fallen and condolences to his family.

A plague of locusts on those overly interested in the "impact on operations".
 
What a jerk move to say "there is zero impact to the airline". This spokesperson definitely screwed up.
 
That hits a little close to home. I fly out of there pretty often. RIP

The "no impact to the operations" statement is just wrong. That statement is valuable for the article discussing the computer systems outage, not the one where the mechanic dies.

Even if they did want it in the article, it could have been stated much more tactfully. Something to the effect of: "Flight operations continued after a brief investigation."
 
Firebird2XC said:
No impact to the operations of the airline?

Wrong, wrong, wrong! One of their own died! Very much an IMPACT.

RIP to the fallen and condolences to his family.

A plague of locusts on those overly interested in the "impact on operations".
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Morale and Operations are not the same thing.
 
RIP...those gear doors are nothing to mess with. One of my mechanic friends in JFK told me that the doors ended up closing around him. I have seen 767-300 bay doors close a few feet from me, and that is enough to get your attention quickly! Careful everyone....
 
It appears (from the wording in the thread) that the actual cause of death was a result of being closed in the gear doors? - am I understanding this correctly?:dunno:
 
Kind of scary in a way that we were doing gear swings at the hangar on a CRJ-700 (N509MJ). A very routine task for an A-check.

My heart goes out to the family of that mechanic



As for Anthony Black's Statement. That is just cold
 
Hootie said:
What a jerk move to say "there is zero impact to the airline". This spokesperson definitely screwed up.
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That was probably the writer who put it like that, not the spokesperson. I'm sure that during the course of the interview, someone asked if flights were cancelled, and the spokesperson answered along the lines of "Well, there was no impact to our flights, but several of us have been touched by the untimely death of our colleague." Unfortunately, in the hands of an unskilled or inattentive writer, it became something much more insensitive.

News media will cut down statements into more manageable "sound bites" all the time. On rare occasion, they do it in a way that changes the original meaning or intent. Don't jump too quickly to conclusions... PR people are very, very careful about what they say.
 
Rosstafari said:
That was probably the writer who put it like that, not the spokesperson. I'm sure that during the course of the interview, someone asked if flights were cancelled, and the spokesperson answered along the lines of "Well, there was no impact to our flights, but several of us have been touched by the untimely death of our colleague." Unfortunately, in the hands of an unskilled or inattentive writer, it became something much more insensitive.

News media will cut down statements into more manageable "sound bites" all the time. On rare occasion, they do it in a way that changes the original meaning or intent. Don't jump too quickly to conclusions... PR people are very, very careful about what they say.
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I hope and suspect it is this as well.

Much like statistics, public statements can be skewed to say whatever the storyteller wants them to say.
 
brent p h said:
It appears (from the wording in the thread) that the actual cause of death was a result of being closed in the gear doors? - am I understanding this correctly?:dunno:
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The gear doors on the Airbus 319 move fairly quickly. I would estimate open to closed position in about one second. Extreme caution should be used when actuating any hydraulically powered components.

RIP to a fellow A&P mechanic.
 
Firebird2XC said:
No impact to the operations of the airline?

Wrong, wrong, wrong! One of their own died! Very much an IMPACT.

RIP to the fallen and condolences to his family.

A plague of locusts on those overly interested in the "impact on operations".
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Rosstafari said:
That was probably the writer who put it like that, not the spokesperson....Unfortunately, in the hands of an unskilled or inattentive writer, it became something much more insensitive.
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Definitely understand the sentiments Firebird, but I suspect Rosstafari may be right on this one...your outrage may be better directed at clumsy reporting, rather than blatant insensitivity on the part of the spokesman. I wouldn't burn the spokesman at the stake unless we see an uncut transcript or video of his statements.

Condolences to the mechanic's loved ones. And to all mechs, be safe...it's easy for us pilot's to forget that your job can be dangerous too.
 
Thoughts and prayers to the mechanics family, all those at MSP, and everybody in the Delta family.

As to everybody who works on, in, or around airplanes, stay safe, we work in a dangerous environment that forces us to always be on guard.

Rest In Peace
 
Firebird2XC said:
This statement proves how little you know about leadership.

Be quiet.
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It's not necessary to tell people to be quiet. I don't think Merit was giving a longterm research thesis on the lasting effects to operations of the airline.

More than likely, "No impact to operations" equates to "there was no delays to the scheduled service."

:beer:

Condolences to the family. Truly a tragedy when accidents like this happen.
 
RIP. :(

I don't see anything off-base about this article, though. "No impact to the operations" means exactly that: The operation wasn't shut down or delayed because of it. The very next sentence extends sympathy and condolences.
 
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