Jet bridges are supposed to go unnoticed. The structures are the seamless link between airport terminals and airliners, shielding boarding and disembarking passengers from the elements. The bridge is never a noticeable part of any journey unless something goes wrong. Yesterday, an American Airlines flight was canceled after a jet bridge collapsed and significantly damaged the plane.
American Airlines flight 732 was scheduled to fly from Dublin, Ireland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania yesterday. However, the airline’s Boeing 787-8 slated to operate the flight was unable to depart. One Mile At A Time reported that a jet bridge attached to the Dreamliner collapsed and ripped the second left-hand side door off the plane. The incident caused no major injuries, but the aircraft wasn’t able to leave with a door lying on the tarmac.
Jet bridge collapses are incredibly rare. Earlier this year, several airport employees were injured at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia after a jet bridge malfunctioned and fell 15 feet. In 2018, six people were injured after a jet bridge failed at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport while paramedics were attending to a passenger from a recently arrived aircraft.
There’s little to fear the next time you’re walking across a jet bridge, but there’s a tiny chance that you might have to wait until tomorrow for your flight. During the summer, American Airlines operated four flights per day from Dublin to airports in the United States. When the incident happened, the three other flights had already left Ireland.