Airport authorities in Texas originally said that the tragedy had been an accident
Officials in Texas have ruled that the harrowing death of a 27-year-old San Antonio International Airport contractor, who was sucked into a jet engine, was a suicide.
The incident unfolded on Friday night as a Delta Airlines flight taxied toward a terminal soon after arriving from Los Angeles. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), ground crew worker David Renner was “ingested” into the plane’s engine as it neared the gate just before 10:30pm. He died instantly.
While the airport initially described the episode as an “accident,” a staffer at the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed to CNN on Monday that the manner of death had been listed as suicide, while the cause was found to be blunt and sharp force injuries.
A police incident report cited by a local news outlet also suggested that Renner left behind a suicide note. Local law enforcement reportedly investigated to determine whether there had been any foul play, but homicide detectives also ruled the death a suicide on Monday.
Renner was employed by Unifi Aviation, which provides various services to the San Antonio International Airport. The company issued a brief statement mourning the death, also maintaining that “this incident was unrelated to Unifi’s operational processes, safety procedures and policies.”
A spokesperson for the NTSB previously said it would launch a probe to determine exactly what happened, but in its latest update announced that there would be no investigation, as “there were no operational safety issues with either the airplane or the airport” at the time of the incident.
