Georgia Student Killed by Plane Propeller After Date

Accident happened Sunday night at Statesboro-Bulloch County Airport
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 19, 2022 11:56 AM CDT
Georgia Student Killed by Plane Propeller After Date
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/Binnerstam)

A college student died after being struck by the propeller of a small plane as he disembarked at an airport in southeast Georgia, authorities said. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the death Sunday night at Statesboro-Bulloch County Airport, FAA spokesman Steve Kulm said. Sani Aliyu, of Atlanta, and a young woman had flown on the single-engine Cessna to nearby Savannah and back on a date, Bulloch County Coroner Jake Futch told the Statesboro Herald. He said the plane landed safely on the return trip to Statesboro around 10:35pm.

The woman "got off the plane and walked toward the back of the plane," Futch said, per the AP, "and [Aliyu] got off the airplane and walked toward the front of the plane, and when he did, the propeller hit him." The Herald reports he was hit twice in the head and died immediately. Aliyu, 21, was a sophomore enrolled at Georgia Southern University. A pilot and co-pilot had flown the couple, said Capt. Todd Hutchens of the Bulloch County Sheriff's Office, and Aliyu apparently knew them both. Hutchens said deputies were sharing information they gathered with the FAA and NTSB. "Nobody is really at fault or anything," Hutchens said. "It was an accident."

(More accidental death stories.)

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