Wichita Photographer Dies In Tragic Ramp Accident

In a tragic accident last weekend, 37-year-old Wichita photographer Amanda Gallagher was killed when she inadvertently backed into a spinning propeller on the ramp of Cook Airfield (K50) in Derby, Kansas, a suburb of Wichita. An avid skydiver herself, she was reportedly taking pictures of people exiting an airplane at the Air Capital Drop Zone when she was struck by the propeller.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/avid-photographer-remembered-as-a-kind-positive-person

Check Six.
That was my post but they want 20 characters minimum…

Prop strikes are not always un-survivable. In the 80s, at an RAF base, not a million miles away from Lyneham, a liney placed the chocks into a Belgian Air Force Merlin and backed out the wrong way. The prop duly sliced a large chunk of his posterior off, which flew up and landed in front of the Station Commander, who was ready to greet the VIP in the Merlin.

Condolences for her friends and family. Very sad.

A supervisor I worked for years ago was in a training class in the navy for maintenance on Skyraiders. He told me the first thing the instructor said is that a “propeller is the sharpest blade ever honed”. You have to be careful around airplanes with engines running. The unfortunate thing is that this is not the first time someone was killed by a running prop at drop zones. Fortunately the drop zones I fly for do have very strict procedures and locations for loading and occasionally offloading skydivers. Hopefully this does not happen again. I have already been to one funeral for a person who died because of walking into a running prop. I feel for the pilot who was flying that airplane. RIP to the victim and condolences to the family and friends.

This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.