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Flights were suspended at one of Italy’s busiest airports after a person was sucked into a plane’s engine.
An Airbus A319, operated by the Spanish budget airline Volotea, was preparing to takeoff from Milan Bergamo Airport on Tuesday morning.
A person “sustained serious injuries” after an incident “involving one of the aircraft’s engine,” Volotea said in a statement. It added that the person was not a passenger nor affiliated with the airline.
Italian news agency ANSA reported that a man died after being sucked into the plane’s engine. It added that he had evaded security checks and run toward the moving aircraft.
Volotea said it is “providing psychological support to both passengers and crew members involved.”
There were 154 passengers and six crew on board Flight 3511, destined for Asturias in northwest Spain. The airline said passengers will be rebooked on another flight leaving around 4 p.m. local time.
The airport’s manager, SACBO, said that flights were suspended at 10:20 a.m. local time “due to a problem that occurred on the taxiway.”
It added that authorities were investigating the incident.
Data from Flightradar24 showed 19 canceled flights, while eight had to divert to airports in Milan, Verona, and Bologna.
Air traffic resumed at noon local time. Shortly after, data from Flightradar24 showed that departing flights faced an average delay of over an hour.
Milan Bergamo Airport is the third-busiest in Italy, with over 17 million passengers last year. It’s also a major hub for Europe’s biggest airline, Ryanair.
While rare, it is not unheard of for people to be sucked into plane engines. In 2024, two similar well-publicized incidents occurred, one at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and another in Salt Lake City.
The Bergamo police did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent by Business Insider.
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