A person has died after falling between the rotating blades of a turbine of a passenger plane departing from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. The officials reported this, specifying that the tragedy occurred today on the apron outside the busy hub terminal while a KLM flight was ready to leave for Billund in Denmark.
“Today an accident occurred at Schiphol during which a person ended up in the engine of a running plane,” the Dutch flag carrier KLM said in a statement.
“Unfortunately the person has died,” the airline added, without revealing the victim's identity. The national newspaper De Telegraaf writes that at the moment it is not yet clear whether he is a passenger or an employee. The Dutch border police, responsible for security at the Netherlands' largest airport, said the passengers were taken off the plane and an investigation was opened.
The aircraft involved is a short-range Embraer jet, used by KLM's Cityhopper service which operates flights to other nearby destinations such as London. Safety and security measures are strict at Schiphol and accidents are rare at the busy airport, which handled around 5.5 million passengers last month alone, according to airport data.