The parents of a Utah man who died after climbing inside a plane’s engine claim he was experiencing “an obvious mental health episode” in a lawsuit filed against Salt Lake City.
Kyler Efinger, 30, was found unconscious inside the engine of a Delta plane at the Salt Lake City International Airport on January 1, 2024, after he had been acting erratically while waiting for his flight.
In a lawsuit filed last Tuesday, Efinger’s parents said he was experiencing “an obvious mental health episode” but was still able to go through two emergency exit doors onto the tarmac and walk nearly a mile to where airplanes were being de-iced before he was found, KSL.com reported.
Efinger, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 10 years ago, died from injuries sustained after climbing into the plane’s engine.
The lawsuit claims “city personnel could not timely locate a ticketed passenger known to be in distress and seen walking outside onto the tarmac on a freezing night.”
Salt Lake police officers were sent to the wrong places multiple times while trying to locate Efinger and wasted time due to poor communication, according to the suit.
The lawsuit also claims that pilots were not promptly warned that a man was walking in the area.
“In a situation where Kyler would still be alive if officers had located him 30 seconds sooner, about the first seven minutes of the city’s search for him were wholly ineffective,” the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit claims his dreadlocked hair was pulled into the moving blades, causing death from blunt head trauma.
“The notion that an airport was so dangerously designed and operated as to allow this sequence of events generated international attention and shock,” the lawsuit says.
His parents, Judd and Lisa Efinger, say they’ve filed the lawsuit to remedy their own loss and prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future, according to the report.
They say their son was supposed to fly from Salt Lake City to Denver to visit his ill grandfather when he suffered a manic episode. During the episode, he “walked and ran down the moving walkways several times, including against the flow,” with behavior “objectively unusual for an adult.”
The parents say if the airport’s camera system had been monitored, their son would’ve been seen leaving the emergency exits and walking onto the tarmac.
The lawsuit also claims that the door he exited brought him to an area that should’ve required identification and a wait for the lock to deactivate, but it did not. The family then says he exited to the outside through another door that did not have the proper safety system installed.
After an officer pulled Efinger from the engine, he was handcuffed before first responders tried to revive him, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit claims damages involved are greater than $300,000, but does not ask for a specific amount. The suit is filed against Salt Lake City, which operates the airport.
A spokesperson for the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office declined to comment to the outlet.
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