Man sought by cops crawls into plane engine intake and dies, Utah airport police say

A 30-year-old man died after crawling inside a plane’s engine intake at the Salt Lake City International Airport, Utah police reported.

A store manager in a secure part of the airport notified police that someone went through an emergency exit following a disturbance at 9:52 p.m. Monday, Jan. 1, officers said in a news release.

Officers and airport workers began searching the areas of the airport the man could have accessed, including an aircraft de-icing pad, police said.

At 10:10 p.m., they found the man unconscious inside a wing-mounted engine of an airliner on the pad, police said. He appeared to have crawled in through an intake cowling, officers said.

The engines of the occupied commercial plane were rotating at the time, police said.

Emergency crews tried to revive the man and remove him from the engine, but he died at the scene, police said.

On Tuesday, Jan. 2, police identified him as Kyler Efinger of Park City, Utah. He was a ticketed passenger with a boarding pass for a Denver-bound flight. His cause of death remains under investigation.

The airliner, which was bound for San Francisco, was evacuated, airport officials told KUTV. A Delta Air Lines twin-engine Airbus A220-100 flight to San Francisco was canceled, the station said.

The incident did not impede overall airport operations, police said.

Salt Lake City International Airport, which is a major Delta Air Lines hub, served 25 million passengers in 2022, the airport said.

This story was originally published January 2, 2024 at 11:23 AM with the headline "Man sought by cops crawls into plane engine intake and dies, Utah airport police say."