On a dark, misty morning in January 2012, Southwest Airlines ramp agent Jared Dodson steered his baggage tug, with four empty carts behind him, out of the main terminal at Dulles International Airport and headed toward Concourse B. He came to a complete stop as he reached Taxiway B, then continued straight across the airplanes’ runway.
As Dodson crossed the runway, a 35-ton mobile lounge with a handful of passengers aboard, driven toward Concourse D by Kenneth L. Smith Jr., made a diagonal beeline toward him on the runway at about twice Dodson’s speed, investigative records show. Smith said he never saw Dodson’s tug below him, and he smashed into two of Dodson’s empty carts. The impact hurled Dodson under the wheels of the mobile lounge, crushing him. Dodson remained conscious for a time, as horrified co-workers rushed to his side, but he died the next day. He was 25.
Dodson’s parents, J.C. and Nancy Dodson of Paeonian Springs in Loudoun County, worked with Southwest and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, waiting to hear the details of what had happened to their son — and why. But as the months passed, they learned nothing more. Smith was not given a traffic ticket, so no information was going to emerge from a criminal case.
More details here.
