A man was killed at an Indonesian airport on early Saturday morning when he was hit in the face by the propeller of a small plane, local media reported on Sunday.
The incident happened at around 7:15 a.m. local time when a Cessna aircraft carrying two people was about to take off from Runway 13 at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport near Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, according to the Jakarta Post.
“The aircraft was preparing to take off and was waiting for clearance from air traffic control when the pilot heard a crash,” airport official Rachman Syafrie told the newspaper. He said the face of the victim, who was identified as 28-year-old farmer Sainuddin, was unrecognizable.
It remains a mystery how Sainuddin managed to slip past security and access the runway. “We are still investigating how the victim infiltrated the airport as security is normally tight and the airport is surrounded by a fence. This is an anomaly,” the airport official was quoted as saying.
It was also not immediately clear why Sainuddin was at the airport in the first place, although the Jakarta Post reported that he was a frequent traveler to Kolaka in Southeast Sulawesi where he has relatives.
