Salt Lake City Airport: Man, 30, found dead after walking on tarmac and crawling inside engine of Delta Air Lines plane

A 30-year-old man has been found dead after climbing inside a plane's engine at Salt Lake City Airport. Kyle Efinger from Park City breached an emergency exit door, walked onto the tarmac and climbed inside one of the engines of a Delta Airlines plane on Monday night (1 January).

The plane had been sitting on a de-icing pad and the engine was rotating at the time. Salt Lake City Police said they found Efinger unconscious and that emergency services had pulled him out of the engine intake cowling, which directs air flow to the engine fan. Efinger, who had a boarding pass to Denver, was pronounced dead at the scene.

A store manager at Utah's biggest airport told the Airport Control Centre he saw a passenger pass through an emergency exit just before 10pm (5am GMT). Officers then found Efinger's clothing, shoes and other personal items on one of the runways, and rushed to tell the pilot to shut off the aircraft's engines. Less than 15 minutes after the first sighting of Efinger, police and airport staff pulled him from the engine intake cowling and performed CPR, but Efinger had died at the scene. His cause and manner of death is still being determined by police.

Passengers were removed from the plane, which was en route from Salt Lake City to San Francisco. A spokesperson for Delta told NBC News: "As nothing is more important than the safety and security of our customers and people, Delta is fully co-operating with all aviation authority and law enforcement investigations."