Another life loss to prop strike

I am having trouble understanding how this can happen to anybody that has been around aircraft for any length of time.
- From the time I was 10 years old, if I heard and airplane engine the first thing I would do is locate it and the PROP so I wouldn't go near it.
- The only cause I can think of is complacency.
- Yes, it's tragic on a number of levels.

 

With all of the technology available now, i don't know why she was on the ramp to take their lunch order.

 

Apparently they had been using Caravans previously, and just brought the Otter in that day. She went what would have been the safe way to go on the Caravan, as she had been doing for a long time, and ended up in the prop of the Twin Otter.

 

On an aircraft carrier, someone or two or three are lost on every tour, whether blown off the deck, sucked into an intake, struck etc. and these are highly trained people..sad but it does happen..

 

Can be easy to reach overhaul limits on turbine meat bombers just based on starts rather than hours, a late twotter will do a sortie in 15~20 mins depending on ambients, shutting down each time wouldn't be very economical. On a good day, there's usually hot fuelling and props will be spinning dawn to dusk - or beyond.

One operation here did have a bloke try to walk through the disc to retrieve chocks....not very successfully. I've had to grab someone who had decades around aircraft from doing similar.

 

The other day I was coming home from Houston with my daughter. I had to do a turnaround very quick(I know, getthereitis) to get the plane up to the shop before they closed. Prop strikes were always on my mind, and this was my only girl getting out of the plane. My plane is very, very, very, hard to hot start. I've run the batt down before trying to hot start it. Of course - a dead batt is of no consequence to anything else.

The Bonanza is no better or worse for prop safety than any other single except maybe the Navion which is far worse, and the Lake amphib which is somewhat different, but still dangerous.

I asked her if we should shut down so she could get out and go to the car. She said no, and I gave the specific instructions I give for deplane with the engine running.

1) Get fully disconnected before getting out.
2) Don't touch anything but the door, the handle, and the step.
3) If you forget something, don't come back. If you want to talk to me, don't come back, if the plane is on fire, don't come back. Once you step out, go all the way to the car and no exceptions for any reason.
4) Don't look back at the plane.
5) Go in a straight line to the car, no side trips.
6) Most important, no one gets in front of the wing - ever.

I pulled up to the FBO and angled the plane away from the building and parking lot, with the right side aimed at the parking lot. She got out, did exactly what I taught her, and things went perfect. I won't do it again, no matter the hot start. I shouldn't have done it last time, but I'm just not going to do it anymore. I think about all the times I was around the tow planes for both banner and glider. I and many others spent plenty of time around spinning props, and if you are moving, that's the only thing you look at. Once you stop, you can do what you came out to do, but if you move, you stare right at the prop all the time.

RIP. But - we don't need more regs