A man died after crawling inside a jet engine at Salt Lake City Airport

CNN
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Police in Utah are investigating the death of a man who crawled into the engine of a Delta Air Lines jet on the ground at Salt Lake City International Airport late Monday.

The airport says the 30-year-old man accessed the airport's safe ramp area through the terminal's emergency exit, “ran to the south end of the airport's west runway where de-icing operations were underway and crawled into an aircraft engine that was not there.” he ran.”

The airport said that rescuers found the man “unconscious and were unable to revive him.” “It is unclear at this time what injuries caused the man’s death.”

The man has been identified as Kyler Evinger, a resident of Park City, Utah, according to the Salt Lake City Police Department.

The department said Evinger had a boarding pass for the flight to Denver.

Delta Air Lines says Flight 2348 — an Airbus A220 about to depart for San Francisco — then returned to the gate, where all 95 passengers disembarked. The flight was eventually cancelled.

Police responded to the airport around 10 p.m. after a store manager inside the airport called 911 to report a disturbance involving a passenger inside the lounge, police said in a statement. Details of the disturbance are still under investigation.

Police said the passenger, Evinger, passed through one of the station's emergency exit doors onto the airport's outer ramp area.

The statement stated that during the search operation, the pilot reported seeing the man. Minutes later, officers found personal items on one of the runways, including clothes and shoes.

After about 10 minutes of searching, dispatchers told police the man was on one of the airport's de-icing platforms, where he got under the plane and was able to access the engine, police said. The police then asked air traffic controllers to ask the pilot to turn off the plane's engines.

When officers arrived at the plane, they found Evinger unconscious and “partially inside” one of the engines mounted on the commercial jet's wing, which was still rotating, police said, noting that “the exact phase of engine operation remains under investigation.”

“SLCPD and Airport Operations officers pulled the man from the hood of the vehicle, secured the scene, began life-saving efforts, and requested emergency medical services,” the statement said. Those efforts included cardiopulmonary resuscitation and naloxone administration.

Evinger died at the scene, according to police. The ministry added that an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause and manner of death, and forensic doctors may prepare a toxicology report.

Airport police say the incident did not affect other operations at the airport.

Salt Lake City police said they were investigating the incident, as were the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Transportation Security Administration.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was “collecting information” about the accident but noted that local police were investigating.

CNN's Joe Sutton contributed to this report.