Dec. 30 (UPI) — A passenger jet bridge at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Maryland collapsed, injuring seven people.
The extendable hallway stretching from the terminal to the plane experienced a “partial equipment failure” Saturday night at Gate E-10 for Southwest Airlines Flight 822, according to the airline on Twitter.
Those injured were transported to local hospitals “for minor injuries as a precaution, tweeted Victor Ferreira, the airport fire chief.
A Southwest Airlines flight had arrived at BWI from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
At 7:47 p.m., personnel responded to a passenger requiring medical attention on board an airline flight when the bridge collapsed, Southwest Airlines posted on its website.
“As they got her, she’s walking out, we heard this incredibly loud bang, it was just deafening. And then the thing crashed and it hit down,” William Yerman, a passenger on the plane at the time, told WJZ-TV.
The Yerman family watched from the windows.
“It was very scary that it collapsed with people on it and they took a big spill onto the concrete,” Michelle Yerman, another passenger, told the TV station.
Treated were four medics, two Southwest Airlines employees and the sick passenger, FAA said in an email to WTOP.
The jet bridge failure is “under investigation,” according to another tweet from the airport.
The bridge will remain closed until the investigation is over, the tweet said.
