News Photographer Amanda Gallagher dies from walking into spinning plane propeller

Kevin

Code Monkey 🐒
Some sad news out of Kansas, photographer Amanda Gallagher of AG Photography died after an accident where she came into contact with a spinning plane propeller. Gallagher was on the tarmac of Cook Airfield, near Wichita, taking photos of passengers getting on & off of planes for skydiving company Air Capital Drop Zone when she backed into the propeller. Air Capital Drop Zone confirmed that Gallagher was an observer on its flights for taking photos.

Gallagher died following being taken to the local hospital after the incident and the FAA will be investigating.

Besides the AG Photography Facebook page, Gallagher also post some of her work to her Instagram page.

A Go Fund Me page has been created to help with funeral expenses.



 
It's sad and horrific. I wonder how the pilot would feel, too.

I know similar issues related to high noise environments where noise-cancelling headphones cancelled so much noise people got into accidents but like many are saying, she shouldn't have been around an active propeller in the first place.
 
Regarding noise. Not sure how loud the aircraft she was on tends to be but I know that jets, turboprops and turbine helicopters can have an all-encompassing (all around you, not from one direction) sound envelope once you're inside a certain zone, and that can leave you unsure of exactly where the danger is in relation to you based on sound. We had very specific and stringent protocols for when we had to be in that zone, and were fully aware that loss of balance or loss of situational awareness for any reason could be lethal. The time span from safe to very bad can be very short.

I'm not going to second guess her, or cast shade. It's a shame it happened, and intersecting the arc of a moving propeller or tail rotor is a horrible thing.
 
Regarding noise. Not sure how loud the aircraft she was on tends to be but I know that jets, turboprops and turbine helicopters can have an all-encompassing (all around you, not from one direction) sound envelope once you're inside a certain zone, and that can leave you unsure of exactly where the danger is in relation to you based on sound. We had very specific and stringent protocols for when we had to be in that zone, and were fully aware that loss of balance or loss of situational awareness for any reason could be lethal. The time span from safe to very bad can be very short.
Thanks for the input, @gordo.
 
My wife, Linda, was a photographer who was often called to photograph aircraft for our State's AF National Guard. While most of the planes she was around were B1Bs or fighter jets, occasionally, she encountered prop planes. She would return from the flight line and talk about how careful everyone was during the session and how the guardsmen would enforce upon her the need for constant alertness. It is a tragedy that this young woman was killed and I can imagine the thought process of a fairly new photographer wanting to get the perfect shot amidst a bunch of noise. I feel so very sad for her family and for her loss of a potentially long life.
 
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