A terrible accident happened yesterday afternoon at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), leading to a fatality.
In this post:
American Airlines ramper collides with jet bridge
At around 2PM yesterday (Thursday, April 20, 2023), an American Airlines employee was killed on the ramp at Austin Airport due to “traumatic injuries.” This happened at gate 24, and according to a police press conference, an employee who was operating a ground services vehicle struck a jet bridge.
When emergency services made it to the scene, an adult male with “obvious signs of trauma” was found, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. For what it’s worth, an American Eagle Embraer E175 was at gate 24 at the time, having arrived as AA3806 from Albuquerque just 20 minutes earlier. The gate hasn’t been used since the incident yesterday.
What a sad accident…
This is incredibly tragic — my thoughts are with the family and friends of the person who lost their life. It’s still not entirely clear to me how a ground vehicle struck the jet bridge in such a way that it caused a fatality. Was it a case of distracted driving, was the driver incapacitated, was something malfunctioning, or what?
Ground services vehicles at airports tend to move pretty slow and be especially careful, given just how much is going on. So to be going fast enough for there to be a fatal accident — not to mention colliding with something that isn’t even moving — is quite surprising.
Unfortunately there are some real risks to working on the ramp. In late 2022, a ramper for an American Airlines subsidiary died on the apron at Montgomery Airport, and was sucked into an engine, after not maintaining enough distance before the engine was shut down. That’s absolutely awful.
Speaking of accidents with airport ground vehicles, in February a passenger bus at LAX collided with an aircraft. Fortunately there were no major injuries there.
Bottom line
An American Airlines employee tragically died after driving a ground services vehicle that collided with a jet bridge. Occasionally fatal accidents do happen on the ramp, though they often involve not being careful around the aircraft as such, rather than issues involving other ground equipment. This is tragic, and my thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased.
What do you make of this Austin Airport incident?
A very sad accident. My heart goes out to his family. My family and I were scheduled to fly out on the plane coming in from Albuquerque to St. Louis from Gate 24. When we arrived the accident had just occurred. American delayed our flight AA4246 to St. Louis, moved us to another gate. This happened numerous times, until they finally cancelled our flight hours later noting 'bad weather.' No other flights were cancelled. We...
A very sad accident. My heart goes out to his family. My family and I were scheduled to fly out on the plane coming in from Albuquerque to St. Louis from Gate 24. When we arrived the accident had just occurred. American delayed our flight AA4246 to St. Louis, moved us to another gate. This happened numerous times, until they finally cancelled our flight hours later noting 'bad weather.' No other flights were cancelled. We were finally rebooked two days later! American Airlines wouldn't pay for anything. Saying it was an Act of God. AMERICAN AIRLINES NEEDS TO STEP UP! PROTECT THEIR EMPLOYEES! And, stop screwing over passengers with their BS LIES!
The individual who died was a good friend of mine since childhood. He was in his mid-thirties and lived a clean and careful life. I heard when his dad posted on FB that his sin had joined his mom in glory that day. Definitely a surprise for his family and friends.
I wonder how long it takes for such medical personnel to arrive on the scene at the apron level. I guess longer than an average case. May be airports and airlines need to be more prepared for such acciedents.
American did cancel several flights into Austin yesterday due to operational "incident in AUS"
I believe there's a medical component here. I saw reports that the ramp employee may have suffered a heart attack before/during the incident.
It is incredibly sad to read of someone's death on the job but esp. at AA which has had several airport incidents.
There are some sources that indicate there might have been a medical component to the accident which either was a partial cause or led to a worse outcome. The public probably won't (and shouldn't) know those details but singularly jumping to conclusions might not be appropriate - as is often the case
I think people tend to underestimate how much damage to a fragile human body even a low speed accident can cause. Mainly because consumer vehicles have an incredible number of safety features like seat belts, air bags, crumple zones, reinforced passenger compartments, etc. to keep us safe.
I have no familiarity with how specialized airport ground vehicles are designed but seeing as how so many of them are completely open air, or don't have doors,...
I think people tend to underestimate how much damage to a fragile human body even a low speed accident can cause. Mainly because consumer vehicles have an incredible number of safety features like seat belts, air bags, crumple zones, reinforced passenger compartments, etc. to keep us safe.
I have no familiarity with how specialized airport ground vehicles are designed but seeing as how so many of them are completely open air, or don't have doors, I wouldn't be surprised if they're not required to meet consumer safety regulations. Probably precisely because they're supposed to be operated at lower speed by trained operators.
I guess my main point is don't underestimate the danger of even a 15mph collision into a stationary object. If not for modern safety engineering, that's easily enough to kill you. Heck bicyclists not wearing helmets die at slower speeds than that.
Unfortunately vehicle collisions with each other/jetways/aircraft/terminal building are not that uncommon. Tight quarters, excessive speed. Seatbelt usage is poor (despite the rules), and in some cases isn't required when driving in the footprint of the aircraft (and if not for company rules, is subject to whatever traffic laws are in place in that jurisdiction). Being in an open baggage tug/elevated seat and going from even 15mph to zero against something solid can easily throw someone...
Unfortunately vehicle collisions with each other/jetways/aircraft/terminal building are not that uncommon. Tight quarters, excessive speed. Seatbelt usage is poor (despite the rules), and in some cases isn't required when driving in the footprint of the aircraft (and if not for company rules, is subject to whatever traffic laws are in place in that jurisdiction). Being in an open baggage tug/elevated seat and going from even 15mph to zero against something solid can easily throw someone from a vehicle. This is tragic but a consequence of a daily battle for safety, quite honestly just like drivers on the road with seatbelts/speeding/running stops/etc.
Without further details, it's hard to imagine how it could have happened, especially given vehicles around the planes parked at the gate don't move that fast. I wonder if the worker had suffered heart attack prior to crashing into jet bridge.
That's horrible. We had that worker getting sucked into the engine not too long ago.
I wonder what changed in hiring and safety practices lately. Hmm ...
My god that’s terrible. God bless them and their family.