Courtney Edwards carried an orange safety cone when she set out to meet an aircraft that had just pulled off the runway at Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama. Moments later, the entire aircraft shook violently. Edwards, a 34-year-old mother of three, had been pulled off her feet and sucked into the airplane’s left engine after coming too close to the turbine’s powerful spinning blades. The ramp worker died instantly.
An investigation by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that her employer’s training and procedures were at least partly responsible for her death on New Year’s Eve. In June, the company, Piedmont Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines, was fined $15,625, the maximum penalty for a severe violation of OSHA’s safety standards.
The aviation industry is rebounding from its pandemic-era hibernation at such a chaotic pace that workplace injuries are rising among the army of ground staff who refuel planes, handle baggage and help move aircraft around the tarmac, according to interviews with executives, workers, union representatives, safety specialists and aviation consultants. While passengers and aviation regulators are typically more focused on safety in the air, people who work under the belly of an aircraft on the side of the runway face a multitude of risks. Workers have fallen off the vehicles, known as tugs, that push back aircraft; inexperienced staffers have caused aircraft to collide; others have had limbs crushed by falling containers. Understaffed and inexperienced ground crews regularly didn’t receive adequate training for their roles, the interviews show. That problem has been compounded by lack of investment during the pandemic that left many workers using faulty heavy machinery. For ground workers, scenes on the tarmac and in baggage rooms have often been chaotic.
Last summer, when the industry restarted, “I think everyone just went, ‘Right, let’s just go for it,’ ” said Warwick Brady, chief executive of Swissport, the world’s biggest ground-handling company. “The airports weren’t prepared properly, the ground handlers weren’t prepared properly, the airlines weren’t prepared properly,” he said. Piedmont, which employed Courtney Edwards, said its existing policies exceed industry standards and actively address the concerns laid out in the citation issued by OSHA. A spokeswoman said, “Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to Courtney’s family and friends and the aviation community who have been impacted.” The company is contesting the fine.
Across the entire U.S. aviation industry, rates of injuries per 100 employees that led to at least one day away from work increased 17% last year compared to 2019, according to an analysis of OSHA data by The Wall Street Journal. That figure includes all aviation-related jobs—including ground handlers, cabin crew, check-in agents, security guards and maintenance workers. It only includes companies that reported their data to OSHA. Company-specific data shows more alarming increases among ground-handling operations. Southwest Airlines’ ground-handling units recorded a 64% rise in the rate of such injuries compared to 2019, according to the analysis. Rates rose 25% at Unifi, which is 49% owned by Delta Air Lines and is the biggest ground-handling contractor in the U.S. And dnata, one of the world’s biggest aviation-services companies, reported a 54% jump in the U.S.
Southwest said training and new operational tools are helping lower the total number of injuries among workers. Unifi said it was investing in its training and “since the recovery of air travel, our safety numbers are showing year-on-year improvement.” A dnata spokesman said it actively encourages employees to report safety incidents and near-misses, over 10,000 of which were internally reported in the last financial year. Although aviation companies operating in the U.S. are required under federal law to self-report injuries each year, the data aren’t perfect. Some fail to report, have different attitudes toward reporting, miss deadlines or file for only part of their operations. OSHA last year announced a program to crackdown on missing filings and in July expanded requirements for next year.
This summer, the aviation industry is even busier. Delays, which put increased pressure on ground handlers, are even worse than last year in the U.S. and Europe. About 60% of ground-handling professionals across the globe don’t have enough qualified staff to ensure smooth operations, according to a May survey by the International Air Transport Association, a trade body. More than a third expected staffing shortages to continue beyond 2023.
Moving aircraft
Ground handlers are required to navigate a ballet of moving aircraft and vehicles on the tarmac, operate heavy machinery, and do it all under immense time pressure. In Austin in April, Michal Ingraham, a worker at American Airlines, died after a tug he was driving began accelerating, hit an airport jet bridge and left him trapped between the two, denting his skull and crushing his abdomen, according to a report by the Austin Police Department. Police discovered the vehicle had been involved in a separate collision 10 days earlier when its brakes failed. When asked by police, London-based Menzies Aviation, which was responsible for the tug, didn’t provide evidence that maintenance work was conducted after the incident. Detectives referred the matter to OSHA which is investigating. The findings were earlier reported by the Austin-American Statesman.Menzies Aviation said it is fully cooperating with the investigation. American said it is “heartbroken by the accident” and fully cooperating with the investigation.
Limited oversight
Regulatory oversight of ground staff in the industry is limited, in contrast to the tightly monitored regulations across most of the aviation sector. In most cases, oversight falls to airlines.
In July, in its 928-page bill setting out the Federal Aviation Administration’s renewed mandate, the House of Representatives issued a “call to action” for the safety of ground workers. If it becomes law, it would give the FAA 180 days to begin a review of the sector and later present measures to improve safety, including developing new training and requiring on-site instruction to protect workers from running engines.
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