Unusual Circumstances Lead to Airman's Death

  • Published
  • 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AETCNS) --  In September, the Air Force released a report of investigation into the May 4 death of Senior Airman Abby J. Bilbrey, citing the cause of death as accidental.

Bilbrey was assigned to the 56th Communications Squadron at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., as an airfield systems journeyman. She and Airman 1st Class Isaac Acosta, also assigned to the 56th CS, were tasked to repair a radio audio quality discrepancy at the White Tank Mountains transmitter site. During the drive to the transmitter site, Bilbrey encountered a tire slippage on a steep section of the road.

Acosta recommended she stop the vehicle and they exchange places to allow him to complete the drive to the transmitter site. Bilbrey stopped the vehicle, placed it in park and while Acosta was walking around the front of the truck, slid across the seat to the passenger side.

The investigation board determined that when Bilbrey released the brake pedal to slide across the seat, for unknown reasons the four-wheel drive shifted to the neutral position, which in this vehicle overrides the transmission to place it in neutral.

This caused the vehicle to begin rolling backward, and Acosta was unable to gain entry on the driver's side. The vehicle knocked him down, rolled over the edge of the road and tumbled nearly 368 feet down the mountain. Bilbrey, who had unfastened her seat belt to move across the seat, was ejected from the vehicle and died from blunt force trauma injuries.