Austin airport employee fatally struck by vehicle on tarmac

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A vehicle fatally struck a person on the tarmac of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, officials said Tuesday, the second fatal incident this year involving a worker at the airport in the Texas capital.

The person was identified as an airport employee but authorities did not immediately release details about how the collision on Tuesday occurred. Firefighters and police responded to the scene, according to Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.

The airport said in a statement that flights were not impacted. During the busy summer months, the airport had more than 2 million monthly passengers.

The Austin Police Department said in an email that the investigation was ongoing and no other details were available.

In April, an American Airlines employee died after driving a service vehicle that struck a jet bridge.

Work around commercial airplanes has resulted in other fatal injuries in recent years. At the Austin airport in 2020, a man was fatally struck by a Southwest Airlines jet on a runway. Police later ruled his death a suicide and officials said the man was not authorized to be on the runway.

In December, a baggage handler for American Airlines subsidiary Piedmont Airlines in Montgomery, Alabama, died when she walked in front of a running jet engine and was pulled into the fan blades.