Probe underway as 30-year-old unidentified passenger found dead inside plane engine at Utah airport after breaching emergency exit door

SALT CITY, UTAH: On January 1, 2024, an unidentified passenger was discovered dead after he climbed into the engine of a plane at Salt Lake City International Airport.

The Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) confirmed his death in a statement, writing that the man had died after he "accessed an airport de-icing pad and entered an aircraft's engine intake cowling," as per Daily Mail.

How did the man die?

The 30-year-old man has not been publicly identified. Initial investigations show that the engine was not running at the time. At around 9:52 pm on Monday, January 1, a store manager inside the airport contacted dispatchers with the Airport Control Center, according to police.

The manager said that there was a ''disturbance involving a passenger on the secured side of the terminal.'' Airport Control reported that the man had left by an emergency exit door as police from the Salt Lake City Police Department's Airport Division arrived on the scene.

Officers and employees of Airport Operations started searching for the individual and discovered he had arrived at the ramp area of the airport.

Later, as the plane was on its route to San Francisco, they found the passenger inside "a wing-mounted engine of an occupied commercial aircraft."

The individual was unconscious when SLCPD officers and airport staff attempted to remove him through the cowling detachable cover that covers the engine.

The person was not able to be revived despite assistance from the Salt Lake City Fire Department.

Airport activities continued as usual but police said they made efforts to protect the area and remove people.

Salt Lake City and federal officials are probing the man's death

Local and federal officials have launched a death investigation into the circumstances surrounding the man's death. The SLCPD is working alongside the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, and Transportation Security Administration, as per Unilad. 

To identify the individual and alert his family, officers collaborated with the medical examiner's office. The man's identity and the reason behind his death were unknown at the time of writing. 

Salt Lake City International Airport's communications director Nancy Volmer said in a statement, "The individual ran to the south end of the airport’s west runway where deicing operations were underway and crawled into an aircraft engine that was not running. The plane was enroute from SLC to (San Francisco)."

A spokesperson for Delta Airlines, the company in charge of the plane the man was discovered on, said,  "As nothing is more important than the safety and security of our customers and people, Delta is fully cooperating with all aviation authority and law enforcement investigations."