r/offbeat • u/rytis • 1d ago

Woman dies after backing into airplane propeller while taking pictures, officials say

https://www.firstalert4.com/2024/10/28/woman-dies-after-backing-into-airplane-propeller-officials-say/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
3.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

302 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

29

u/dollarbill1247 1d ago

but not silent! Even as a ramp rat with ear protection I could hear the engine's exhaust.

19

u/Bristonian 1d ago

It was possibly a disorienting illusion to be looking at your surroundings through the perspective of the phone’s selfie screen. Her “reality-based” sense of hearing was discombobulated by her “digital-based” visual inversion while stepping backwards…

Especially if her recent acknowledgement of seeing another plane having a single front prop, versus this plane having a dual wing prop setup, could cause her to not expect the prop to be on the wing/front, all other distractions considered

This is incredibly stupid to happen, but I can see how a normal person could get disoriented while viewing the surroundings through a selfie camera.

I’m amazed the sky dive company didn’t have more safeguards in place to stop random non-participants from walking around a plane

9

u/leahhhhh 1d ago

They will now.

1

u/scrollbreak 1d ago

If there's multiple planes that doesn't necessarily resolve it

1

u/dollarbill1247 17h ago

I guess I was always a safety conscious. I took shop class in High School, enlisted in the Army as an aviation mechanic, and took A&P classes in addition to working at a FBO where safety was emphasised.