An American Airlines worker died Thursday after being injured at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, according to airport officials.
The worker was injured in the area where planes pull up to the terminal, an airport spokesperson said.
Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services said it was called shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday and found a person dead from “traumatic injuries.” Corporal Destiny Silva with the Austin Police Department said the employee had been operating a ground service vehicle that struck a jet bridge.
APD’s Vehicular Homicide Unit is investigating the crash as an accidental death, according to Corporal Silva.
“I don’t have any indication that anyone is not cooperating. The main focus here is that someone unfortunately lost their lost in an unfortunate accident. We are utilizing all of our resources,” Silva said Thursday evening.
American Airlines released a statement on the matter Thursday.
“We are devastated by the accident involving a team member at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport,” said a spokeswoman for American Airlines. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and our local team members.”
Fort Worth-based American declined to comment further. The name and sex of the worker and details about how they were injured were not immediately available.
Working around aircraft can be dangerous work.
In December, a baggage handler for American subsidiary Piedmont Airlines in Montgomery, Alabama, died when she walked in front of a running jet engine and was pulled into the fan blades.
Last September, a contractor’s employee who was unloading bags from a Frontier Airlines plane at the New Orleans airport died after her hair got caught in a conveyer belt.
In 2019, an employee of a United Airlines contractor at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was pinned under a bag-loading vehicle. He died later at a hospital.
A man died after being struck by a Southwest Airlines jet on a runway at the Austin airport in 2020. Police later ruled it was a suicide, and officials said the man was not authorized to be on the runway.
