Unsung Hero

On Thursday, American Airlines Flight 1006, which was supposed to fly from Colorado Springs to Dallas, diverted to Denver due to excessive vibration in an engine. The plane, a 737-800, landed and taxied to the gate. After the jetway was extended, the right engine caught fire.

This picture shows a ramp worker preparing to put out the fire. In other video that I saw, but I can’t find now, it’s clear that this person basically extinguished the fire before the ARFF (Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting) trucks arrived. (No shade on DIA ARFF — it’s a big airport and I’m sure they responded quickly.)

Here’s an angle after s/he has started putting out the fire. This person’s actions were especially important because passengers had evacuated onto the left wing, but were unable to get off the wing because the 737 has no evacuation slides on the wings. Instead, part of the evacuation procedure is to fully extend the flaps so that passengers can slide down the flaps to the ground. Because the incident happened after the plane was at the gate, the flaps were up. The NTSB will figure out why the pilots weren’t able to extend the flaps before the evacuation.

The average ramp agent salary is $17/hour. You can get some free flights, but I don’t think there’s much in terms of benefits or retirement. Apparently, some American agents are represented by the Communications Workers of America, but I couldn’t find a DIA local, so I’m guessing that this agent wasn’t a union member. The average Denver ARFF firefighter makes $30/hr, but of course that’s a union job that includes some kind of state retirement, benefits, disability benefits, etc.

The ramp is a dangerous place. Agents have been sucked into engines. I’m sure this agent was trained to fight fires because there’s a danger of fire on the ramp due to refueling operations. They used their training well on Thursday. If we ever learn their name, I’ll post an update.

(Juan Browne has an overview of this incident on his Blancolirio YouTube Channel.)

Also, an update to my post on the NTSB preliminary report on the mid-air collision near DC National Airport (DCA). The FAA has responded to the NTSB recommendation to limit helicopter operations when the runway where the accident aircraft was landing is in use. They’ve actually gone beyond the NTSB recommendation and permanently restricted helicopter traffic near DCA and permanently closed Helicopter Route 4, the one that the accident helicopter was using. Good. Not everyone who knows something about safety was fired when DOGE rolled through.