A 41-year-old pilot was killed on Monday after being struck by the moving propeller of his 1974 Piper Cherokee. The accident took place around 8:30 a.m. at Gillespie Field in El Cajon, California, just outside of San Diego.
According to officials, the pilot, who has been identified as Gordon Trygve Mylo Woodard of Lakeside, California, and one passenger were taxing out of a hangar in the Cherokee when the engine stopped running. Woodard reportedly got out and attempted to hand prop the airplane when the propeller started to move and struck him in the head. Woodard was transported to a local hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
The accident comes less than two months after the high profile propeller accident involving 23-year-old model and fashion blogger Lauren Scruggs. Scruggs had just returned from a night flight over Dallas in an Aviat Husky when she exited the aircraft and was struck by the propeller on the left side of her body.
She sustained serious injuries, including the loss of her left hand and eye, and has since been undergoing rehabilitation. NTSB investigators say the pilot of the Husky, who is reportedly a family friend of Scruggs’, left the propeller running with the intention of changing passengers at the time of the accident.
Another individual, 67-year-old Alistair Mathie, was killed in the United Kingdom on Saturday after exiting a Piper Cub and walking into its moving propeller.
