PROPELLER SAFETY
Acknowledgements: Thomas P. Turner (Mastery Flight Training Inc.)
.... a woman on the ramp at the small, non-towered airfield was critically injured when struck by a spinning propeller. The airfield is home to a very active sport parachuting jump zone .... The follow-up reports said the woman, in her 30s, was taking photographs of jumpers loading into the jump plane when she backed into the propeller of another airplane idling on the ramp .... My first thought when hearing these early reports, trying to draw positive LESSONS from the tragedy, was about briefing people who are not familiar with lightplane operations before they enter an aircraft operating area.
What would you cover in such a briefing? I considered briefing points such as these:·
Airplanes can be extremely dangerous to persons walking around airports.
·Propellers are invisible when rotating and depending on other airport activity and noise you may not even know one is spinning.
·Sometimes propellers are on the front of an airplane, sometimes they are on either wing, and sometimes they’re behind the wing or even at the end of the tail.
·When walking on a ramp, keep your head up and your eyes and ears open.
·Do not take photos or videos while walking on an airport, because you’ll be distracted by your subject and your vision narrowed by the viewfinder or camera display.
·Never walk backwards or sideways on an airport. Face the direction you’re walking.
·Still, rapidly scan left and right occasionally to see what’s around you.
·Walk in straight lines and well away from aircraft, so pilots can see you and anticipate your movement.
·Always hang on to small children at airports and keep pets on a leash.
·If you see a sign that says “nonmovement area,” don’t be complacent. Airplanes and helicopters run and move in nonmovement areas, too.
I also thought about the horrible experience the pilot and any occupants of the airplane had after the woman backed into the Skylane’s spinning propeller. What might we pilots do to mitigate the risk on ramps and taxiways accessible to pedestrians. How about this:
Watch pedestrians carefully to detect and predict their movement.
Watch children and pets especially closely.
Shut the engine(s) down before allowing passengers to exit your aircraft.
Shut the engine(s) down before permitting passengers and others to approach your aircraft.
Minimise the time on the ramp spent with engine(s) running. Start up, taxi away with your eyes outside, and move to an area more inaccessible to pedestrians before stopping to program your avionics, pick up your clearance or run checklists.
During the time you are on the ramp where pedestrians may tread, keep your hand on the mixture control(s) or ignition switch(es) ready to immediately stop engines if someone gets close to the aircraft.
Envision a circle the diameter of your wingspan surrounding your aircraft. In rotary wing aircraft make this twice your rotor width. If anyone comes into that area and headed toward your aircraft shut your engine(s) down immediately.
As safety conscious people who control access to airplane movement and non-movement areas, we all have a responsibility to:
Educate, brief and escort passengers and persons who will be on the ground near aircraft
Follow the best practice of shutting down before loading or unloading passengers.
Minimize our time spent with the engine(s) running on the ground in places where pedestrians may appear.
Properly educate line service personnel for their own protection as well as ours.
Be vigilant and shut down immediately if someone on the ground enters the space within the wingspan or twice the rotor span of your aircraft.
FLY SAFE!