Eighteen passengers were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after a mobile lounge accident at Washington Dulles International Airport, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) confirmed.
Passengers were able to exit the vehicle using stairs, and the terminal sustained some damage, according to reports.
The incident occurred when the lounge, which had traveled from Concourse D, struck a dock at an angle upon arrival at the terminal. It remains unclear how many people were on board at the time.
“The airport is open and operating as normal,” MWAA said in a statement.
Dulles Airport operates 19 mobile lounges, each 54 feet long and 16 feet wide, capable of carrying up to 102 passengers, with 71 seated. These carriers have been in use since 1959, making them a longstanding but increasingly outdated feature of the airport.
Critics have called the lounges “relics of the past,” with a former Trump administration official describing them as “an embarrassment” for international visitors. The carriers have also had a history of incidents; NBC Washington reported at least 16 collisions or mishaps over the previous decade.
