Pilot disembarked a passenger without shutting down. She walked into the spinning prop. Tragic and totally avoidable.
http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2022/08/diamond-da40-diamond-star-n723ag-fatal.html
Anyone that’s flown this aircraft will tell you that it would extremely irresponsible to do this.
Absolutely the step down from the wing is towards the front.
Something similar not long ago
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/brit-21-killed-spinning-helicopter-27577720
I recall even an instructor walked into propeller after sending a pilot solo in Cub
eurogaguest1980 wrote:
Pilot disembarked a passenger without shutting down
It’s really unnecessary, even if DA40 has a step forward it’s a nightmare in DA40: the pilot was busy holding the canopy not the mixture?
One can tolerate drop & pick up pilots in twin DA42 with one engine down but no way with passengers
eurogaguest1980 wrote:
totally avoidable
Lots and lots of accidents are totally avoidable and the result of plain stupidity. You seldomly get hit if you have or have created several nets of safety around you, but if you skip them because you think you don’t need them (no longer) it’ll catch you sooner or later. However, in this case, if she was just a passenger without knowledge of these dangers the pilot might get sued. The behaviour showed all the lack of any responsibility a pilot should take over for his/her passengers.
Long periods without accidents and long experience often breeds complacency.
Taxying to the pump at a private German airfield, I saw a man standing on a small ladder filling the tank of a Pitts type aircraft with the tank and filler cap between the pilot and the prop. Engine running, prop spinning…
Later I learnt that this was/is the owner of the field (a son of a gun also when flying) ! Still hard to believe.
She walked into the spinning prop. Tragic and totally avoidable.
Maybe they briefed „stay clear of the prop, go away sideways..“ and the person fell?
I’d never approach or retreat from a SEP with spinning prop (or someone inside potentially starting) from forward of the wings.
I had the chance to fly a pre-certification aircraft at their factory in Wiener Neustadt and recall mentioning the unusual position of the step on the leading edge of the wing to the engineers there, thinking an accident exactly like this one could happen. They did explain why they put he step where it is, but I don’t recall the reasoning behind the position. Every other low-wing airplane I have ever flown has the step on the trailing edge of the wing, well away from the prop.
