Investigators at Oakland airport are looking into an industrial accident involving a southwest Airlines plane that was pushing away from the gate for a flight to Phoenix.
It caused a lot of concern for the tug driver. The tug is the vehicle that pushes the plane away from the plane. Somehow the driver was pinned between the vehicle and the airplane.
According to Southwest Airlines, he is hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. No one onboard the plane was injured.
A witness who watched from the terminal told ABC7 News, a bar connecting a tug to the 737 jet at gate 25 on Terminal 2 broke as it was pushing back. The tug then shot forward and struck the plane's landing gear.
The driver was trapped between the landing gear and the vehicle. People at the terminal that the plane would burst into flames, but it did not.
Firefighters freed the man in 30 minutes and rushed him to the hospital. The passengers were taken off the plane and put on another flight to Phoenix.
The plane involved in the accident is still at the gate while investigators go over whether there was some kind of mechanical failure, operator error or a combination of both.
Other flight's landings and take-offs were not affected at the airport.
