Originally Posted by
pitch mode
I was involved in a very similar incident a couple years ago. The ramper walked directly in front of the running engine and was nearly sucked in. He caught himself on the nacelle, and fell to the ground, but not before his hearing protection headphones were sucked off of his head and ingested by the engine. Later I got a scan of his hand written incident report and the man was almost illiterate. My second grade daughter writes at a much better level. Then I read the supervisors report, and it was only slightly better. In my opinion, they were not nearly smart enough to be working in a dangerous environment, or have any responsibility for multi million dollar equipment. If the airline had paid a couple dollars an hour more, they would have been able to attract an employee with at least enough literacy to learn and follow the safety protocols. My point is, that it is not always about the employees pride, or honor, or attitude. Sometimes it is about basic qualifications, and paying enough to get them.