A jet bridge at the Santa Barbara Airport collapsed Tuesday morning while undergoing maintenance, according to airport officials.
The incident occurred at approximately 9:25 a.m., the airport announced in a post on X. Emergency crews responded to the scene, and airport staff confirmed that no passengers were on the bridge at the time.
Lauren Gonzales, marketing coordinator for the airport, said the collapse occurred at Gate 2, which was already out of service. “We can confirm that our jet bridge at Gate 2 collapsed while undergoing maintenance,” she said. “It was out of service, so no passengers were boarding at that time.”
Two airport employees suffered minor, non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to Cottage Hospital, according to Gonzales.
Despite the collapse, the airport does not expect delays. “We have our three other jet bridges that are still operational,” Gonzales said. “And we have the ability to ground board … so we’re not expecting any impacts to operations.” She added that airlines will shift passengers to other gates as needed.
The airport said an engineer is currently inspecting the bridge to determine the cause. “We’ll know more once the investigation is concluded and can speak more to the specifics on what exactly happened,” Gonzales said.
The airport advised passengers to check with their airlines for the latest flight status. More information on arrivals and departures from SBA can be found here.
