A Delta Air Lines employee was struck and injured in an accident posted on Twitter.
A ramp agent or below-wing agent is seen waiting to marshall a 717 into a gate at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL). That’s when a service truck suddenly plows into the unsuspecting agent.
@xJonNYC uploaded this footage on Tuesday afternoon.
(Warning: the below video will likely disturb many people.)
Oh my. Anyone know when? pic.twitter.com/9axfpcmlSR
— 🇺🇦 JonNYC 🇺🇦 (@xJonNYC) December 14, 2022
A source based at ATL tells us airport police are investigating the incident.
A Delta spokesperson provided us with this comment:
“Delta teams are fully investigating an accident involving an employee injury in Atlanta on Saturday evening, as nothing is more important than the safety of our people and our customers. The employee was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.”
We don’t know the extent of the employee’s injuries — but at least they’re not life-threatening.
UPDATES: Reader NedsKid commented, “According to the police initial report on this, the wing walker was bleeding from the head but she was stable and she was transported to Grady. In the interview with the lavatory vehicle driver, he stated that he was looking down at his work assignment tablet when this happened.”
Meanwhile, Kelly Yamanouchi of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes, “The driver was cited, Hartsfield-Jackson security confiscated his airport badge, and he was escorted from the scene by Delta, according to the police report.”
Best wishes to the injured worker! And keep your eyes on the road, everyone!
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I don’t know how that is a non-life threatening injury.
Some trial lawyer is going to make a fortune off this case.
And Delta better do right because this is the kind of workplace safety issue that causes employees to unionize.
Glad that they are recovering and therefore that it doesn’t appear to be life threatening. This is yet another lesson in the dangers of distracted driving. Fortunately this driver was spared from the horror of a much worse accident and hopefully any of us that are not will be careful in the future.
Thank you for providing this update. Hope this person has a speedy recovery.
According to the police initial report on this, the wing walker was bleeding from the head but she was stable and she was transported to Grady. In the interview with the lavatory vehicle driver, he stated that he was looking down at his work assignment tablet when this happened.
I’ve spent the better part of 20 years as an airline station manager/General Manager at airports of various sizes (including about a 3 year stint at ATL) and the thought with cell phones was they are an outstanding tool in an emergency but have no place for normal use on the ramp, certainly not while operating a vehicle (which is illegal in a car in many states anyway). I’ve struggled with the whole issuance of tablets as something more complex to serve as a distraction while driving. You see them in ATL on a mount on nearly every single Delta bag tug. My airline has tablets for aircraft loading and the lead agents receive them, and to an extent they are geo-fenced as to where they will work, but seeing anybody driving and fooling with it is an instant write up – and the union supports this.
Thanks for the perspective!
@NedsKid Thanks much for the update.
Re having tablets/phones, I agree, but only to a degree. If the only things available on their tablets are work-related assignments then it’s probably safer than a piece of paper. The driver could just as easily be distracted by staring at the assignment on harder to read paper. Ditto with phones — if they are properly locked down I think their use is ok. Remember, the flight manuals the pilots use are themselves on tablets.