$360K fine after worker struck by a rotating aircraft propeller

A horticulture and agriculture farming business has been fined $360,000 after a light aircraft propeller caused traumatic injuries on a worker from shoulder to hand.

On 11 September 2023, two workers and the company’s managing director — who was also piloting the aircraft — prepared to fly to a nearby worksite to check on a new onion processing line.

One of the workers and the pilot were waiting for the second worker, who was attending to a work-related phone call. They wheeled the single-propeller Cessna aircraft from the hangar to the taxiway and boarded while they were waiting.

The pilot started the aircraft and after a minute or two the second worker exited the main office and walked towards the taxiway intending to board the aircraft.

After allegedly being told to approach the aircraft from the rear right-hand side, the worker intended to reach the right-hand side of the aircraft by walking around the front of the aircraft.

He was struck by the rotating propeller as he approached the front of the aircraft, suffering traumatic injuries to his right arm from shoulder to hand — with multiple fractures to his right forearm and hand.

The worker has since undergone multiple surgeries and will need more surgery in the future.

The company pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the South Australian Employment Court on 14 April 2026 after a SafeWork SA prosecution.

SafeWork SA alleged that:

“The inherent risks of death or serious injury from operating an aircraft at the workplace were obvious and could easily have been eliminated or greatly reduced.

“The company failed to ensure that any areas in which aircraft operated at the workplace were designated aircraft operating areas.

“The company also failed to ensure that there were established and designated passenger boarding zones and that a documented procedure had been implemented that covered aircraft operations, in particular embarking and disembarking aircraft.”

A single prior verbal instruction to approach the aircraft from the rear right-hand side was “foreseeably wholly inadequate”, His Honour Deputy President Judge Lieschke said in his sentencing remarks.

“[The company] had failed to consider its legal obligation to implement hazard controls, to the greatest extent that was reasonably practicable, for use of the aircraft in the workplace,” Lieschke said.

“[The company] had a range of safety policies and procedures to control the hazards of other traffic and mobile plant in its large enterprise but had not applied them to use of the aircraft.”

Lieschke said that the company had provided a high level of meaningful personal and employment support to the injured worker from the outset and had also promptly implemented hazard controls to eliminate the risk of injury.

The company was fined $600,000 and a conviction was recorded. This was reduced by 40% to $360,000 for its early guilty plea and contrition.

The company was also ordered to pay a contribution to SafeWork SA’s legal costs of $1210, and a Victim of Crime Levy of $451.

“Aircraft present an extreme hazard in the workplace, and this incident shows the devastating consequences when those risks are not properly managed,” SafeWork SA Executive Director Glenn Farrell said.

“Verbal instructions are not a substitute for clear safety systems, physical controls and well‑planned procedures.

“Any plant or equipment being used as part of work, must be thoroughly assessed for all foreseeable risks associated with its use. If risks cannot be eliminated, then they should be reduced by using other high order controls in the first instance.

“The controls that have been put in place post incident, were all reasonable and practicable solutions to preventing this significant life-changing injury from occurring in the first place.”

Image credit: iStock.com/A330Pilot. Stock image used is for illustrative purposes only.