JOHN STULTS AGENT 64 YRS OLD 7/28/99 Continental Express Manager Killed By Propeller Kristen Everett The Associated Press LITTLE ROCK - A general manager for Continental Express Airlines was killed Wednesday when he walked into the spinning propeller of a parked plane at Little Rock National Airport. The turboprop plane had recently landed from Houston and passengers were preparing to leave down a stairway pushed up to the plane's entrance when JR. Stults, 60, accidentally walked into the left propeller of the twin-engine ATR42-500. Marie Simmons and her mother were on their way to New York. She said that, minutes before the accident, she talked to Stults. "He had talked to my brother about putting my mother on the plane first because she's handicapped and we were sitting and waiting," she said. A few minutes later she looked out the window she said, and saw the propeller strike Stults. "It was a terrible, terrible sight," she told Little Rock station KATV-TV "It just took him apart," said Pulaski County Coroner Mark Malcolm. "He suffered massive trauma." Airline spokesman Michele King said Stults was helping with the unloading process, a task he routinely did although he managed Continental's service at the airport. An investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board said Stults may have assumed the left propeller was not spinning because planes usually shut off the left propeller before arriving at Gate 7. In this case, however; the plane's left generator was not working, meaning both propellers had to continue turning while the plane came to a stop, said NTSB investigator Nicole Lupino. Lupino said several people at the airport gate and terminal witnessed the accident and would be interviewed later She said she did not know if Stults was wearing earphones or earplugs. The plane was carrying 32 passengers, two pilots and a flight attendant, according to Continental. It was scheduled to arrive at 11:24 a.m. as Flight 3402 and was to return to Houston as Flight 3401 a short while later The outgoing flight was canceled and other airlines picked up the passengers. Other Continental departures left as scheduled. Yellow police tape sectioned off the outside of the airport gate Wednesday afternoon. Airport workers used shovels and buckets to clean the pavement and then a fire truck sprayed it down. Little Rock's entire Continental ticket counter crew was replaced with a crew from Houston for an unspecified amount of time. Stults, of Lonoke, had worked for Continental since 1983 (should be 1986 - JL) and been general manager at Little Rock since 1993, King said. Jake Lamkins from MORNING NEWS (7/29/99) PLANE'S PROPELLER KILLS MAN AT GATE AT LR AIRPORT BY KELLY YOUNG ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE A Continental Express Airlines employee J.R. Stults was killed Wednesday when he walked into a spinning propeller on a commercial aircraft that had taxied and parked at Gate 7 at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field. The 60-year-old airline station manager from Lonoke, who routinely worked on the ramp with airplanes, walked under the wing of the ATR 42-500 airplane and into the six-bladed propeller about 11:15 a.m., Pulaski County Cbroner Mark Malcolm said. Continental Express Flight 34O2 had just arrived from Houston. Witness Marvin Clute, who was waiting at the gate inside the terminal to board Continental's return flight to Houston, estimated that the propeller was about 4'2 to 5 feet of the ground and hit Stults above the chest. Witnesses said Stults was decapitated. "Does he even realize it's there? Does he even realize it's coming?" Clute said he asked himself as he watched Stults walk into the propeller. Clute is a national safety director and inspects companies for safety violations. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating. Flight 3402 pilots "are saying that they pulled up to the gate, and the ground marshaler gave them the signal to stop," said national safety board investigator Nicole Lupino. "They stopped the aircraft and were starting to go through a short checklist," Lupino said. "Then they noticed something happened. They heard a noise. The first officer signaled to the captain that they heard a noise. They went ahead and stopped the airciaft and shut down the engines to check it out." The pilots told Lupino that they usually shut down the left engine while taxiing. In this case the left engine was running. "Regular operations for Continental," Lupino said, "is that normally when you're coming in, the left engine is shut down to expedite getting the aircraft secured, to expedite getting baggage out and passengers out. However, that was not the case for this particular aircraft because there was a minimum-equipment procedure that they had to follow to keep engines running when they pulled up to the ramp." Mick Thorn, who had been visiting Hot Springs and was waiting to catch a flight to Houston, said the accident initially sounded like an explosion. "Everybody went toward the terminal window at that point," Clute said. Clute said employees covered the body and then allowed passengers to get off the plane. After the accident airline employees taped purple blankets to the terminal's windows. "People were really shook up about this," said Harriette DelCampo, choking back tears. She said children were watching airplanes take off when the accident occurred. She had spoken with Stults before the accident. "He was a very, very nice man," said DelCampo, who lives outside Conway. Stults had worked for Continental Express since 1983. He had been Continental's station manager in charge of airline operations at Little Rock since 1993. Lupino had not spoken with the ground crew or witnesses in the terminal. She was not sure how long Stults had been working outside or if he was wearing headphones. To her knowledge, no one inside the plane saw the accident. Adams Field was named after someone who was killed by an airplane propeller. Capt. George Adams, an operations officer in the 154th Observation Squadron of the National Guard, was struck by a propeller that flew off an airplane taxiing in a hangar on Sept.4,1937. Continental Express spokesman Michelle King said she had been with the company for four years and there had been no accidents with propellers. Continental Express has 120 turbo-prop and regional jets in its fleet. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Lauren Peduzzi said she could only recall one propeller accident in the United States in 1998. "Obviously it's a freak occurrence, and we may never determine how he came to be in that position," said Malcolm, the county coroner. The ATR 42-500 is a twin-engine turboprop that seats about 50 passengers. Flight 3402 had 33 passengers and three crew members aboard. Passengers of outbound Flight 3401 to Houston were connected with other airlines. Continental Express sent 25 employees to Little Rock from its Houston headquarters to console Stults family and relieve local employees so they can grieve, Continental's King said. (7/29/99) Generator had role in death of man at Little Rock airport BY KELLY YOUNG ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE As a supervisor, J.R. Stults' biggest concern was the safety of his employees. But the 60 year old Continental Express general manager was killed Wednesday on the ramp at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, after walking into a spinning propeller of a two engine turboprop ATR42-500. "He was supervisor, and all the people that worked for him said that was his main concern - safety," said his sister-in-law Frieda Belote. Continental Express Flight 3402 from Houston had just pulled up to Gate 7 when the accident occurred. Witnesses said Stults, of Lonoke, walked into the plane's left propeller. One of the plane's generators was not working, so the pilots kept both propellers turning as they pulled up to the gate, said Nicole Lupino, National Transportation Safety Board investigator. To speed up unloading, the left propeller is usually turned off while an airplane taxies. Purple airplane blankets taped up to the terminal window to shield onlookers had been removed Thursday, and flights departed as scheduled from the gate. Continental Express ran its four usual nonstop flights from Little Bock to Houston on Thursday. About 25 people from the airline's Houston headquarters relieved local Continental employees Wednesday. Airport spokesman Philip Launius said the plane was to be taken back to Houston on Thursday afternoon. "It's still a part of the investigation" and will remain in a hangar, said Continental Express spokesman Michelle King Since 1983,34 U S civilians have died from contact with propellers or rotors. The safety board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating Wednesday's accident. "I'm assuming that this will take a substantial amount of time," Launius said. Stults' funeral will be lpm. Saturday at Ridgeview Baptist Church in Fayetteville. Stults was looking forward to retirement, probably in a couple of years, Belote said "They were going to move to Clarksville, buy a little acreage and be closer to their daughter," she said. Stults had a wife, Shirley, and two grown daughters. (7/30/99) All references to John being 60 years old and starting with Continental in 1983 are erroneous. John was 64 and started with Continental in 1986 after Frontier Airlines (whom he had worked for since 1962) ceased operations and filed bankruptcy. Jake Lamkins (7/30/99) NTSB RELEASES FINDINGS ON PROPELLER MISHAP Manager may not have known propeller was still spinning The Associated Press LITTLE ROCK - A Continental Airlines manager killed in an accident was apparently listening or talking to someone over a shoulder mounted radio shortly before he walked into a spinning propeller, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The preliminary report released Thursday states that J.R. Stults was acting as a wing walker - making sure the plane's wings cleared all structures - when the accident happened July 28 at Little Rock National Airport. Flight 3402 had just landed from Houston and was puliing into the gate with 33 passengers and three crew members. Witnesses told NTSB investigator Nicole Lupino that Stults appeared to be communicating over the radio as he was walking. They said he then looked up at the people in the terminal window. When he looked back down, he hit the propeller and was killed. Lupino said on the day of the accident that Stults may not have realized the left propeller was spinning. Under normal circumstances with a turbo-prop plane, the left propeller would have been turned off before parking the plane. But the left generator on the ATR 42-500, which supplies hydraulic pressure, had malfunctioned. In such cases, Continental guidelines require pilots to run both propellers while taxiing. "It appears that they were doing what was called for in the manual," Lupino said. Stults, who had been a ground operator for 31 years, had been with Continental Express since 1983 and been general manager in Little Rock since l993. NWA MORNING NEWS 8/7/99 NTSB Identification: FTW99FA201 Scheduled 14 CFR 121 operation of CONTINENTAL EXPRESS, INC. Accident occurred JUL-28-99 at LITTLE ROCK, AR Aircraft: Aerospatiale ATR 42-500, registration: N14451 Injuries: 1 Fatal, 36 Uninjured. This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. On July 28, 1999, at 1127 central daylight time, an Aerospatiale ATR 42-500 airplane, N14451, was terminating its flight at gate 7 at the Adams Field, Little Rock, Arkansas, when a ground crewmember received fatal injuries from contact with a rotating propeller. The two pilots, one flight attendant, and 33 passengers on board were not injured. The airplane, which received minor damage, was registered to Continental Express, Inc., and operated as Jet Link flight 3402. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and an instrument flight rules flight plan was filed for the 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 121 scheduled domestic passenger flight, which originated from Houston, Texas. According to ground personnel working the aircraft, the airplane was marshaled to a stop on the parking ramp. Shortly after the airplane stopped, they heard a noise and saw that the ground crewmember, who was acting as the left wing walker, was laying on the ground outboard of the left propeller. During interviews conducted by the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC), people positioned in the terminal building at the time of the accident stated that the ground crewmember walked from behind the left wing towards the nose of the airplane. According to the witnesses, the ground crewmember appeared to be listening or talking on a shoulder mounted radio and then looked up at the people in the terminal. The ground crewmember then looked back down and impacted the propeller. According to personnel with Continental Express, the ground crewmember had been working at the Little Rock, Arkansas, station as a ground operator for approximately 31 years. Five of the six propeller blade tips were damaged and cracked. Taken from NTSB website (8/7/99)