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A man who breached security at Salt Lake City International Airport on New Year’s Day was found dead inside the engine of a Delta Airlines plane carrying 100 people waiting to take off.
Alerts for the unidentified 30-year-old man were heightened after the manager of an airport store reported an unspecified disturbance just before 10 p.m. the police said.
The same man then somehow managed to slip through an emergency exit door and eject onto the airfield before airport police contacted him, Salt Lake City police said.
At 10:10 p.m., just 15 minutes after passing through security, he was found unconscious inside one of the engines of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A220-100 that was being de-iced before heading to San Francisco. Officials also announced that it had been discovered.
He ran to the plane and “crawled into the engine of the plane, which was not moving.” the airport said.
First responders attempted life-saving measures by extracting him from the engine intake cowling, which channels air into the engine fan section. However, he was confirmed dead at the scene.
“The cause of the man’s death is unknown at this time,” the airport said, stressing that the engine was not running at the time. The identity of the deceased man was not immediately known.
Two pilots, three flight attendants and 95 passengers were on board Delta Flight 2348 at the time, the airline said. The plane returned to the gate and all passengers were rebooked onto other flights.
“Delta Air Lines is cooperating fully with all aviation authorities and law enforcement agencies in their investigations because nothing is more important than the safety and security of our customers and people,” an airline spokesperson said in a Tuesday post. told the paper.
Police, along with the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and Transportation Security Administration, are investigating the security violations and fatal crash.
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