Two Santa Barbara Airport employees reportedly had minor injuries after a jet bridge collapsed Tuesday morning. No passengers were on the jet bridge at the time.
Two Santa Barbara Airport employees reportedly had minor injuries after a jet bridge collapsed Tuesday morning. No passengers were on the jet bridge at the time. Credit: Santa Barbara Airport photo

A jet bridge at the Santa Barbara Airport collapsed Tuesday morning, and two airport employees were transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

The jet bridge collapsed around 9:25 a.m. while crews were conducting maintenance on the bridge, according to airport spokesperson Lauren Gonzales. The bridge is used to transport passengers from the terminal to the plane.

“We don’t know the details yet. We’ll have an engineer look at it and (they’ll) be able to tell us more once their inspection is complete,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said the bridge, which was parked at Gate Two, did not have passengers on it at the time of the incident. The crew members who were injured did not have life-threatening injuries.

The two employees were transported to Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, according to Cory Cloud, a fire battalion chief with the Santa Barbara City Fire Department.

Cloud confirmed that the City Fire Department and the Santa Barbara County Fire Department responded to the scene after being alerted at 9:23 a.m.

The airport was operating normally Tuesday, and there were no expected delays in flight schedules.

“Everything is expected to operate as normal, but passengers can still check with their airline directly for the flight status. We always encourage that,” Gonzales said.

Airport officials later said all over jet bridges were visually inspected and no concerns were identified. They are investigating the cause of the collapse and the jet bridge will stay out of service until further notice.

“This is the first time something like this has happened at Santa Barbara Airport, and we are taking the steps to determine what the exact cause was,” Airport Director Chris Hastert said in a statement. “It appears to be an isolated incident, but the safety of our passengers and our staff remain our number one priority.”