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A person has died at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands after they were sucked into the engine of a plane preparing for takeoff. A KLM Embraer jet bound for Denmark was full of passengers with its engines running when the person was caught in the engine.
The person was killed yesterday when KLM flight KL1341 was preparing for takeoff from Amsterdam at around 14:25 pm local time, which is 08:25 Eastern Time. The victim has not yet been identified by authorities and it’s not clear if they were a passenger at the airport or a member of ground staff at Schiphol. In a statement, Dutch carrier KLM said:
A fatal incident took place at Schiphol today during which a person ended up in a running aircraft engine. Sadly, this person has died. The flight concerned was KL1341 bound for Billund. We are currently taking care of the passengers and employees who witnessed the incident at Schiphol.
According to Dutch Border Police, who monitor security at Schiphol Airport, passengers were evacuated from the aircraft following the death, reports BBC News. After passengers were removed from the plane, images were shared showing the Embraer aircraft surrounded by fire trucks and ambulances as it stood next to the departure terminal. As the site reports:
The deceased has not yet been identified and it is too early to say whether it was an accident or a form of suicide, a spokesperson told Reuters new agency.
Various Dutch media outlets have suggested the victim could be an employee involved in pushing back an airplane before it takes off.
An investigation has now been launched by law enforcement in the Netherlands to uncover how the incident occurred.
While shocking to hear about, the death is far from being the first instance of a person being killed by a jet engine. Earlier this year, a person was found dead inside a jet engine in Salt Lake City and last year an airport worker was sucked into a jet engine as it started up.