Witness gives horrific 5-word account after man sucked into plane engine

A man died after being sucked into the plane's engine. (Image: Social Media )

Witnesses to the horror moment an Italian builder was sucked into a plane engine at Milan Bergamo Airport and killed have given dramatic accounts of the incident with one saying they "felt a very powerful vibration". Andrea Russo, 35, from Calcinate near Bergamo, reportedly took his life by jumping into the jet’s engine on Tuesday morning after arriving at the airport without a ticket and getting into a restricted area leading to the runway. The incident caused disruption at the airport. 

Border Police on duty attempted to stop him, but he ran onto the tarmac and “threw himself into one of the two turbofans” on the Volotea Airbus A319 flight V73511 from Milan to Asturias in northern Spain.

Passengers arriving at their destination said overnight, the scenes they witnessed had been “horrible.”
Spaniard Carmen Garcia told Asturian paper La Nueva España: “We were in the plane and about to take off with the engines on, when a person came running towards us. He got under the plan,e and suddenly we felt a very powerful vibration. People brought their hands to their heads and ducked down. Then the fire brigade, ambulances and police started to arrive.”

Daniel Isla, a Chilean national living in Italy who spoke after travelling to Asturias on holiday with his family, told the paper: “I didn’t see anything but heard a tremendous noise in the engine turbine.

“We didn’t know what had happened at first but then the plot came out and told us a tragedy had occurred and there’d been a terrible accident and someone had been sucked into the engine.

“It was a feeling of incredulity initially because we couldn’t believe what had happened. We wanted to think it  was something else until we realised it was true.”

Passenger Ana Sanchis, another of the 154 passengers on board, said crew attendants had advised them to pull down their window shutters and not look out because it was “very unpleasant”.

She added: “We left via the side of the right wing, which was where the incident occurred, with the firemen forming a corridor all the way down and everything covered up. It was horrible.”

Police sources have said the man who died had a history of “drug problems.”

Following the incident, airliner Voltea took to X to say: 'We regret to confirm flight V73511 from BGY-OVD was involved in an incident at Milan-Bergamo Airport at 10.35am.

“One person not onboard and not affiliated with the company was seriously injured. All 154 passengers and six crew are safe.”

The passengers due to leave Milan Bergamo at 1030am yesterday ended up departing at 16.45pm in another plane and arrived in Asturias just before 7pm local time.

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