Stephanie Cosme, 32, was killed last year when she inadvertently walked into the rotating propeller of an aircraft in California

Stephanie Cosme, 32, was killed last year when she inadvertently walked into the rotating propeller of an aircraft in California

A US air force civilian contractor had become disoriented recording data at an airport in California last year when she walked into a jet’s rotating propeller and was killed, officials said on Friday.

In a statement outlining the findings of a report into the contractor’s death, the air force materiel command said that 32-year-old Stephanie Cosme was mortally injured on 7 September when she inadvertently walked into the rotating propeller of an MQ-9A that was parked at Gray Butte airfield.

  • Fal@yiffit.netEnglish
    2·
    7 months ago

    There are all kinds of civilians working for the military. This isn’t some active war zone where she stepped on a land mine. Every civilian doing work on an airport tar mac doesn’t require a military member holding their hand to tell them not to walk into spinning proppellers. Blaming this on the military vs just an unfortunate accident is just ridiculous

      • Fal@yiffit.netEnglish
        02·
        7 months ago

        That doesn’t make you right. That’s very different from expecting a military member to follow her around to keep her safe. The training likely would have come from the contracting company she was working for, not the military

        • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
          11·
          7 months ago

          My comment/edit was really more of an update on the incident than a vindication of my initial reaction, though there’s some of that too.

          You wrote:

          Blaming this on the military vs just an unfortunate accident is just ridiculous

          That’s false. Even the military themself admitted as much. Facts matter…

    • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
      03·
      7 months ago

      EDIT: I was right:

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/05/us-air-force-contractor-death-stephanie-cosme

      I don’t think anyone’s claiming it was during the chaos of wartime, but it was an active airfield. So yes, it’s their responsibility to limit access, keep track of everyone, and keep both pedestrians and vehicles/aircraft safe.

      the air force materiel command accident investigation board said it found two causes for the incident.

      “First,” the board said, “the test engineer was incorrectly instructed or trained on how to take telemetry readings when approaching the MQ-9A while the engine was running. Second, she lost situational awareness while walking around the mishap aircraft taking telemetry readings with a hand-held measurement device.”

      • Cyyris@infosec.pub
        1·
        7 months ago

        I guarantee she had access lol. Getting access to a flight line is not as difficult as you’re making it out to be.

        If her job duties included…you know, being on the flight line (as it sounds like her contract absolutely was,) all she had to do was get the SMO to verify her clearance, verify her job duties, assign her a RAB, and she’s good to go. Guaranteed she had all of the correct clearances and authorizations.

        If you’ve got access to the area, nobody is going to follow you around and “keep track of everyone.”

        I know this because I had all of this access as a civilian contractor when working on a military installation.