ORLANDO, Fla. — An airline passenger died Friday morning when he was thrown through the windshield of a tram at Orlando International Airport, falling 15 feet to the ground below, according to officials.
The man was given “advanced life support” by a rescue crew and taken a local hospital, said airport spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell.
He has since died from his injuries, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Fennell did not release his name.
The accident happened about 5:35 a.m. local time as the tram was carrying the man and an employee of the airport contractor, Bombardier Transportation, who operates the tram system, from the main terminal to the satellite terminal with gates 1 through 29, Fennell said.
Normally, the trams are automated, but at the time of the accident, the Bombardier employee was operating it manually, something Fennell said happens every morning.
The Bombardier employee made an emergency stop – it’s not clear why – and the passenger went flying through the front windshield, she said.
He fell about 15 feet to a grassy area below, she said.
She referred questions about the reason for the emergency stop to a Bombardier Transportation spokeswoman in suburban Philadelphia, who was not immediately available.
Mid-morning, the three-car yellow tram could be seen stopped on the track about 100 to 200 yards from the satellite terminal to which it was headed. Figures could be seen moving around inside.
Fennell said the accident was being “evaluated.”
Two trams serve each satellite terminal, Fennell said, and the second one serving gates 1 through 29 in Airside 1 was operating normally.
The trams carry about 100,000 passengers a day between the main airport terminal and four satellite terminals, Fennell said.
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She described the accident as unprecedented at OIA.
The accident did not impact flights from the airport, she said.
The typically driverless trams, also referred to as people-movers or shuttles, travel the 90-second, 2,000-foot one-way trek thousands of times a day.
Each tram can carry up to 240 passengers at a time.
Orlando International has plans to replace four of the eight trams, which have been running at the airport since 1981. They were refurbished 1990.
Last fall, the airport placed a $65.6 million order to purchase the new trams for airsides 1 and 3.
They are expected to be fully operational by spring 2018.
It is unclear if the tram the man fell from was planned to be replaced.
