A man says he got a concussion when a mobile lounge at Washington Dulles International Airport “crashed into a wall at speed” on Monday, sending 18 people to the hospital.
The passenger was on board the people mover shuttle with his wife and two young children, on their way back home to San Francisco, when the vehicle crashed into part of Concourse D.
“I looked up and we were approaching the gate. I looked forward to where we were approaching and it was coming at us very, very quickly. For a split second I was like, ‘This is not right.’ And then all of a sudden it kind of went black,” Andrew said.
”I lost consciousness for a brief moment and kind of came to in a sea of suitcases and passengers splayed across the ground of the people mover – my young kids over on the side complaining about their heads and screaming,” he said.
He said he suffered a concussion and saw people bleeding. One flight attendant was on the ground for close to a half-hour getting help, he said.
Everyone injured had non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Video shows first responders race to the gate after the people mover hit the docking area. A day later, News4 saw an airport worker inspecting the mobile lounge up close. Chopper4 captured images of what appeared to be stopping blocks on the dock bent backward and forward.
Standing next to the people movers, you get a better sense for how big they are. At tens of thousands of pounds, they’re more than 50 feet long and can hold more than 100 people.
No information on the cause of the crash was immediately released. The airports authority said the vehicle “struck the dock at an angle as it was pulling up to the building.”
Andrew described the crash as more intense than that.
“The official statement saying that it struck the gate at an angle is wholly inadequate. It crashed into a wall at speed,” he said.
There have been dozens of reported incidents involving the people movers since 2007, the News4 I-Team reported, including a 2022 case when two passengers were taken to the hospital and a dozen others were injured.
Some travelers said they don’t like having to use them.
“They’re a little strange. I’d prefer not to go on one, personally,” one woman said.
The mobile lounges, also known as plane mates, date back to the 1960s. They aren’t going anywhere. The airports authority has a program underway to refurbish them and use them for at least 20 more years.
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