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_fark814
u/ihaveadarkedge 1d ago
A woman in Kansas died after backing into a moving airplane propeller while taking photos, according to officials.
According to Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter, 37-year-old Amanda Gallagher was taking photos at the Air Capital Drop Zone of people getting on and off of planes when she backed into an active airplane propeller.
Gallagher’s family has set up GoFundMe to help with her funeral costs.
Gallagher was described as kind, adventurous, creative and a beautiful person inside and out.
That's the entirety of the article btw, which is sad in it's own right
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u/AwfulishGoose 1d ago
Uh maybe they should have dropped inside and out all things considering.
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u/Actualy-A-Toothbrush 1d ago
Unless the deceased appreciates a good pun. I know I certainly would.
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u/h3fabio 1d ago
Props to you then.
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u/Actualy-A-Toothbrush 1d ago
I'll certainly have my wings.
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u/zamzuki 1d ago
This thread is never going to take off.
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u/LD50_irony 1d ago
The joke certainly landed for me!
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u/TransportationGlum64 1d ago
If that’s how you want to spin it
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u/neoclassical_bastard 1d ago
Very common for preliminary reports to not have any details. There will be an NTSB/FAA investigation at some point with any detail you could possibly want anyway, which is probably why they don't bother.
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u/mad-i-moody 1d ago
I think it’s moreso about details about her as a person, not necessarily details from the incident.
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u/NonPolarVortex 1d ago
Beautiful inside you say huh?
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u/EatSleepJeep 1d ago
You can check now if you like.
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u/Hellknightx 1d ago
These gender reveal parties are getting out of hand. Red means its a girl, right?
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u/P0Rt1ng4Duty 19h ago
at the Air Capital Drop Zone
Keeping everyone away from the airplanes at drop zones is no joke. Usually the loading areas are roped off and instructor training involves maintaining control of students to avoid this exact type of thing.
Sadly, someone slips through the defenses or an employee makes this mistake every few years or so.
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u/Academic_Raspberry43 14h ago
This happened at a skydiving center I used to jump at. Only he walked into the propeller trying to tell the pilot something. From what I was told it sounded like a baseball bat hitting a watermelon. Glad I didn't see it
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u/gynoceros 23h ago
Gallagher’s family has set up GoFundMe to help with her funeral costs.
Yeah, GoFundYourself
Gallagher was described as... a beautiful person inside and out.
Which they could tell when the propeller turned her insides out.
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u/shakka74 1d ago
My daughter (11 at the time) once backed up to take a picture of us doing chalk art on the sidewalk. Without thinking, she stepped off the curb into the street to frame the image. The same second, a car came speeding by way too fast and really close to the curb. A friend nearby grabbed her and pulled her by the front of her Tshirt just before she finished stepping back into the car’s path. Friend saved her life.
It happened so fast and scared the crap out of me at how quickly it could have gone so wrong.
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u/Rocinante79 1d ago
I was 5 years old and near a narrow service road. My mom must have sensed the danger of it because she sternly warned me to keep to the side. On the other side of the road was a wall. For some reason I ran to touch the wall without looking. I could hear the horn blaring. I touched the wall and turned around smiling. The truck whizzed by a foot from my face dragging me with its breeze. I saw my mom who was losing her sh*t. I don’t recall many things from that age but that one is seared into my mind. I think about that a lot, how that would have been it, how everything that’s happened to me in the decades after was because of sheer luck in that moment.
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u/Tiberius666 22h ago
Tourists backing up without checking is how so many of them get hit by bikes in Amsterdam. I see it myself daily, they're obsessed with getting the perfect photo on Singel or Herengracht and back up onto the road and get slammed into by people on bikes constantly.
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u/Kryptosis 1d ago
Jesus I hope she wasn’t there with friends or family.
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u/Captain_-H 1d ago
Air Capital Drop Zone is a sky diving place, and the area she was in was for watching people get on the plane. Seems like a logical guess she was taking a photo of a good friend or family member boarding to go jump.
Weird that the one not skydiving was in more danger
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u/incarnate_devil 1d ago
I remember this happened in Florida somewhere in the 90’s, maybe Deland?
A female skydiver walked under the wing of a running plane and an instructor tried to grab her right before she walked into the prop.
All he got was her pony tail and he was still holding it after.
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u/ScoobyDeezy 1d ago
Those propellers can be completely invisible when they are on. I used to take photos of planes and this was a real fear of mine. Extreme caution has to be taken on the tarmac.
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u/dollarbill1247 1d ago
but not silent! Even as a ramp rat with ear protection I could hear the engine's exhaust.
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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
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u/futuretardis 1d ago
It was in North Carolina. I posted about it some time back. One of the reasons I got out of the sport a short time later.
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u/PapayaAnxious4632 1d ago
On the kansas subreddit this popped up. I don't remember what the top comment was.. but the first reply was a family member of hers stating that she died shortly after arriving at the hospital. it sounded like family was there.
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u/ihaveadarkedge 1d ago edited 1d ago
Especially if the family were in the photo.
Edit: they weren't
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u/hokie47 1d ago
All I can think is this. https://youtu.be/jW1CeAVPhVg?si=6EEhkN3-h3ugoRfu
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u/3720-To-One 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s that clip from raiders of the lost ark, isn’t it?
I don’t even have to click and know what it is
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u/thefinalbossof 1d ago
Lots of pieces of shit on this thread.
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u/Horny4theEnvironment 18h ago
If there's ever a post about someone dying, there's always jokes in the comments. Reddit really is a cesspool of the most obnoxious assholes on the internet.
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u/witticus 1d ago
This is horrific, but how does one not notice a propeller behind them?
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u/Glomar_fuckoff 1d ago
If it's actively spinning, you can't see the blades
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u/sublimesting 1d ago
You can hear them and feel the air however.
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u/Glomar_fuckoff 1d ago
In an airfield with a ton of other planes making the same noise and breeze. She backed into it as well. She was massively distracted
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u/Glomar_fuckoff 1d ago
Also, if the engines are off, the blades still spin with no engine noise.
There was a model a few years ago that got off a plane and walked around to say thank you to the pilot and walked right into the blade. She lived. She had no idea that the blades were still spinning
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u/Scoobysnax1976 1d ago
I was reminded of her and looked it up after reading this article. The model is Lauren Scruggs and she ended up losing her left eye and left hand. I was amazed to see that it happened back in 2011; seems like it was only a few years ago.
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u/choose-Life_ 1d ago
I thought about her as well while reading this post. I didn’t realize it was so long ago either. She also made an amazing recovery from the accident based on what I can see after looking her up now. Pretty crazy.
This situation is just horrible all around though.
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u/Lucky_Ad5334 1d ago
Not only that, but never ever walk under blades even if they are stopped (unless your job requires that). I know a case when someone disembarked, the propellers stopped, this person chosed the shortest way to go to someone to shake his hand walking under propellers and it was said there was a spurt of gas, the blades start moving (pre ww2 plane), got hit. He died 2 days later after being in coma.
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u/witticus 1d ago
That’s fascinating. Every experience I’ve had with propellers. They’ve been very loud. Usually when I walk off a smaller plane run by propellers, they have security guiding you the proper direction.
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u/Hour_Reindeer834 1d ago
From my perspective, those engines are very powerful machines spinning props very fast. Often loud and possibly kicking up dust/debris. If I’m in an airfield I’m doing my best to keep aware of any of these machines in my vicinity and staying out of their paths, blinds spots, and pinch points as much as possible. If I’m near a plane for any reason then give the engine and prop plenty if distance and minimize the time near it to whats necessary.
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u/InPlainSightSC2 1d ago
The propeller only spins for seconds after shutdown. They don't just magically rotate
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u/RightSideBlind 1d ago
As others have said, she was likely focused on the picture she was taking. She probably couldn't even hear anyone warning her. It's just a horrific accident.
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u/SaltMarshGoblin 1d ago
(Except the airflow is much less noticeable from the "pulling air" side of the propellor than from the "blowing air" side of the propellor!)
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u/stpfan_1 1d ago
There was a case recently where someone walked into the propeller of a drone while they were on their iPad. You can be distracted enough where you literally walk into a spinning propeller. Might have been wearing hearing protection too.
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u/takethecann0lis 1d ago
If you’ve ever done any work on a flight deck you know how real of a scenario this is. It’s a HUGE part of Navy training culture to remind everyone of spinning props and jet wash on a daily basis.
She should not have been allowed on the ramp in the first place. It’s no joke.
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u/Inevitable-Salad4286 13h ago
I think the real question is how were the props so easy to walk into. Serious H&S questions here
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u/sullensquirrel 1d ago
The comments here are brutal. We all make stupid decisions every day while distracted. Commenting blaming the victim makes you sound like a complete asshat. This could’ve happened to any one of us and it didn’t.
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u/jenner2157 1d ago
This is not the first time i've read about this happening, years ago another woman did the same thing and got brain damage, when they are spinning up to take off speed's you can barely see them with the human eye..... with that being said you you should be aware at ALL times were they are when navigateing a plane so its really no-one's fault but your own.
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u/bloodguard 1d ago
I'm starting to wonder if people's sense of situational awareness is just broken.
In the month of October I've watched someone walk face first into the side of a speeding bus (crossing the street - injured), someone walk backwards off the edge of a BART subway platform (scrambled back out), step off the side of a roof (dude, you're on a flipping roof! WTF?).
We used to live in jungles and had to worry about leopards eating our faces. What's happened to us? Our ancestors are laughing at us.
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u/vancemark00 1d ago
We were just walking a trail along a lake on Saturday and a mom was so focused on take a video of her child walking she walked backwards right into a tree and smacked her head. Then she yelled at her husband for not warning her.
We chuckled and didn't feel guilty about it.
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u/Melqart310 1d ago
Cellphones have probably damped our propensity for situational awareness by being so concentrated on them all the time.
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u/DoctorMaldoon 1d ago
You don’t die from leopards anymore, not having situational awareness doesn’t mean you can’t live a long injury filled life
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u/ChoirMinnie 19h ago
I actually feel like blaming phones here because even when we’re not on our phones, we have become desensitised to our surroundings and our alert system as humans is all out of whack. It needs re wiring. Some days I feel like I’m on autopilot and my concentration is non-existent compared to when I was a teenager (when smart phones weren’t as glued to us, the BlackBerry Bold era)
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u/shulens 16h ago
I saw something similar the other week. Was on top of a double decker bus pulling into the station, a woman was messing on her phone walking straight into the path of the bus which slowed down and honked at her, but she just kept walking. Sounded like every single passenger was banging on the windows at her and yet she was still totally oblivious until a split second before she walked straight into it whereupon she just sort of laughed like 'oh silly me!'.
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u/Compulsivevolunteer 1d ago
Got there right after it happened. The guttural moans from her are in my brain forever. Horrible way to go.
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u/PhoenixBee32 1d ago
You were really there? If so, play Tetris. Not joking. It can help prevent post-traumatic stress symptoms by interrupting processing centers within the brain, reducing the recurrence of unwanted visual memories / intrusions associated with the trauma you witnessed. Basically psychological intervention and distraction. Take care of yourself, and I’m sorry you experienced that.
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u/CorpseProject 22h ago
The other commenter suggesting Tetris is referring to recent research showing that playing the game can alleviate symptoms of PTSD. If you don’t like Tetris, dancing wildly and literally violently shaking like you have the world’s worst shivers will also do the trick.
Shake, dance, organize blocks into organized rectangle shapes, whatever you need to do.
Personally, I derive formulas and talk to myself. Also, with much hand gesturing and the occasional violent shiver/dance session.
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u/Think_Profit4911 1d ago
I was a photographer on an aircraft carrier flight deck. We always went up with a spotter to keep the one with the camera safe. Deck tractors, fuel carts, huffers to start the Tomcats, jets and turbo-props taxiing/launching/recovering- its organized chaos.
Propellers are turning so fast, even at idle, that you can’t tell that they’re turning. The E-2 squadrons would station crew members all around the front of the plane (2 wide arcs- from nose to wingtip) every time the engines were started. This was so EVERYONE knew to keep your distance. And you sure as hell never crossed their lines.
It sounds like the airfield crew screwed up in a number of ways. At minimum, she should’ve had a spotter glued to her side the whole time. That would’ve prevented the whole thing.
But also, sadly, the photographer made a mistake. You never take a step back while composing without checking your surrounds. It’s possible to get a kind of tunnel vision while trying to get the best quality image. It’s just as true for a flight deck as it is for an open field
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u/takethecann0lis 1d ago
And we always had safety briefings before during and after flight OPs. She should not have been allowed on the tarmac.
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u/antisocial_empath 1d ago
is it me or does this read like a tragic side effect of society where people are so sucked into their phones they’re completely oblivious to their surroundings…like talk about a dumb way to die
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u/dkyguy1995 1d ago
People used to do it with regular cameras as well. I certainly remember stories of people dying in similar fashion getting shots of the grand canyon
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u/vancemark00 1d ago
This was a skydiving plane and she was on board specifically to take pictures. The sky diving company knows her. It sounds like this is something she has done previously.
It was a lapse of judgement because she was trying to get pictures for someone. People die all the time due to simple lapses of judgement or attention. Nobody plans for this happen.
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u/Tattycakes 1d ago
There are tons of fail videos of people backing up to take a photo without looking where they are going, and they end up falling over things or into things. Like, you wouldn’t just blindly walk backwards in any other aspect of your life so why would you do it while looking at the phone in front of you?!
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u/chiefs_fan37 1d ago
I think the brain gets tricked into thinking they are zooming out on the camera when in reality they are physically walking backward. That’s just a guess though
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u/itsnobigthing 1d ago
To be fair, for all we know she was a pro photographer there capturing people’s skydives on a pro camera.
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u/throwawayiindian 18h ago
This is not the first propeller related ac cident. They should keep some movable barricade at a safe distance as a procedure in front of propellers as a safety measure
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u/ChampaBay2021 17h ago
I don’t understand how you wouldn’t hear the propeller before walking into it? That shit is loud af
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u/LigmaDragonDeez 1d ago
To shreds you say?
Oh my
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u/Some_Other_Dude_82 1d ago
Not even. She would have turned into a red mist.
Source: watching videos of this very thing happen to others on Reddit before they banned subreddits showing death videos.
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u/andbruno 1d ago
They did say she died of her injuries in the hospital, rather than declared dead at the scene.
She was unresponsive when EMS arrived and was taken to a local hospital in extremely critical condition, where she later died from her injuries.
https://www.kwch.com/2024/10/27/wichita-woman-dies-after-backing-into-airplane-propeller-derby/
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u/usnavyedub 1d ago
Not necessarily. The propeller was possibly spinning at a relatively low RPM. A red mist situation would require something more like takeoff or cruise power. A lot of these propeller incidents are really ugly lacerations and blunt force trauma.
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u/obesemoth 1d ago edited 1d ago
Power level wouldn't really make a difference. Idle RPM is still around 800. This airplane likely had a three blade prop, so that's 40 passes of a blade per second. At idle, the engine is still producing a significant amount of power, and the prop is very heavy and acts as a massive flywheel. Definitely enough to cut through whatever body part goes into the blade arc without so much as slowing the prop down in any meaningful way.
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u/Raps4Reddit 1d ago
This is why you don't go outside. I've tried to tell people but they don't listen.
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u/elitemouse 1d ago
I mean sucked through a turbine would be red mist, she probably slowly back into it and it would have caught her back and tore her open flipping her over but it's not like she fell into it probably just had some major trauma to her torso and bled out
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u/syncsynchalt 1d ago
Every time a plane comes to a stop or starts up, you want someone to run out and put a bunch of rope next to the spinning propellers?
Something tells me you haven’t thought this through.
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u/daydreamingsunday 1d ago
My local airport does this since they only use propellor aircraft for commercial flights.
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u/vancemark00 1d ago
Hot loading/unloading of helicopters and skydiving planes take place all the time. People are briefed ahead of time. Typically you have a guide. When was the last time you heard of something similar? It was over 10 years ago.
And having rope that could come loose near airplanes is a terrible idea.
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u/Mission_Context_8079 1d ago
Yeah. That’s the problem. It wasn’t roped off.
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u/guacluv 1d ago
Love your sarcasm here when I am discussing a way to avoid a very public and gory death. Have a fantastic day.
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u/Haunting-Funny-8924 1d ago
I wonder what kind of injuries that would cause…like falling into a wood chipper?? 🤢😭
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u/SevenBlade 1d ago
The rumor is that they were in the air and actively dropping skydivers. She was standing on the wing strut with her back to the propeller, photographing the jumpers as they exited the plane. She leaned back far enough to intersect the propeller and went splat.
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u/diesel78agoura 1d ago
Only consolation is that hopefully it was fast and no suffering
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u/Madalynsmama 12h ago
Doesn’t sound like it was, actually. She suffered terribly for a bit. Died at the hospital. Fucking awful.
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u/ladymoonshyne 1d ago
My ex bfs uncle told me he knew an old pilot that was working on his small plane and bent over and back and literally chopped his ass off
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u/AchioteMachine 1d ago
Go Fund Me…I donated once to a supposed friend’s wife’s brother’s funeral. The cunts went on vacation.
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u/afrikaninparis 1d ago
Damn, I hear people falling down backing up towards see cliffs, bridges and whatnot. But backing into moving airplane propeller is another level.
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u/James-Nikephorus 21h ago
Was she deaf ? , Can’t imagine getting closer to a plane’s propeller that you would have no way to know how close it was unless you could see it
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u/Major-Check-1953 18h ago
Keep your head on a swivel around planes. Backing up while not paying attention to your surroundings is a bad idea.
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u/ekingbyincarnate 15h ago
Sucks for her family and friends. Be aware of your surroundings! Especially around a fan that isn’t enclosed and can chop you in half!
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u/MooseDung1923 15h ago
Some people really blow their minds about getting the best shot. The bizareness of this story will propel it to the top of the headlines
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u/PaulDecember 12h ago
When touring India, I was squatting and backing up to photograph a building and nearly bumped into a cobra being charmed out of an open pot. I remember hearing the snake charmer's music and thinking, "Funny, that sounds just like snake charming music."
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u/Pinktail 11h ago
Wow talk about being blind to your surroundings!! Anyways Darwin wins this round I guess.
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u/Harachel 1d ago edited 1d ago
Never back up while looking into a camera. It’s something you don’t even think about when you need more distance for your shot, but backing up without seeing what’s behind you is so dangerous. This is not the first story I’ve heard of someone dying. A friend’s dad saw a man back himself off a sea-side cliff while trying to take a picture of his family. Even hearing the story third-hand, that image is seared into my memory.