This is a horrible way to die.
Thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends.
Please be safe at the airport.
A baggage handler at a New Orleans airport was killed when her hair got tangled in the machinery of a belt loader, officials said Wednesday. The freak accident happened as Jermani Thompson, 26, was unloading a Frontier Airlines plane parked at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport around 10 p.m. Tuesday, a spokesperson told WVUE-TV.
The horrific death happened on the “apron,” where airplanes are maintained and loaded and unloaded, the station reported. Thompson was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead after the incident, which led to Frontier canceling one flight Wednesday.
“We extend our deepest condolences following the tragic death of a member of our ground handling business partner,” an airline spokesperson told Nola.com in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones during this difficult time.” Thompson worked for GAT Airline Ground support, reports said.
“We are heartbroken and are supporting her family and her friends as best we are able to,” GAT CEO Mike Hough told Nola.com.
Her grieving mom told the news outlet that Thompson was an accomplished basketball player, who had played as Hesston College in Kansas and Tougaloo College in Mississippi. “She was my baby girl. Everybody loved her,” Angela Dorsey told Nola.com in an interview Wednesday. “I’m just lost for words. I can’t even think.
I feel awful for her mom.
Sadly, these weird accidents happen from time to time. I wish someone were around just to cut her hair off before it was too late. I am sure they are going to put a rule in going forward you have to put your hair up or in a hat just to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.
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