NT WorkSafe has started an investigation into the workplace death of 30-year-old Dwayne Beaumont in Darwin.
Mr Beaumont was crushed by machinery and could not be saved by paramedics at a plant hire business on Wishart Road, Tivendale on Monday afternoon.
The circumstances involved loading excavator attachments in large buckets, which was common practice, WorkSafe said in a statement.
"These attachments should be secured to prevent dislodgement," the statement said.
Mr Beaumont was from a Katherine family, lived in Batchelor and had worked for aviation company Aerotech NT since 2009, where he managed ground operations, according to the company's website.
Before that, he had worked mustering cattle in the outback.
There were numerous tributes on social media to Mr Beaumont and condolences for his family, which were well known around Katherine.
He was described as a "great young man" in one man's post.
"My heart aches for this young man, so much more life to live ... Sending all my love back home," a family member wrote.
The Northern Territory has the worst per capita record of workplace deaths in the country, and a change of culture was needed, Unions NT general secretary Joel Bowden said.
Derick Suratin was killed in an electrical accident at the Tennant Creek Fire Station in February.
A Darwin man was crushed by a 1.5 tonne electrical switchboard at the construction site of the new Palmerston Police Station in the same month.
Such incidents rocked the community and affected many people, he said.
"We think there needs to be a change of culture, a fundamental change in the work culture in the Northern Territory," he told ABC radio.
Mr Bowden said the introduction of new industrial manslaughter laws needed to occur to improve safety along with a beefing up of WorkSafe's resources and oversight, which have been recommended in recent reviews of safety laws.
