Baggage Handler Killed in Freak Accident at NOLA Airport

A 26-year-old employee at the New Orleans airport was killed in a freak accident on Tuesday night. Jermani Thompson was working on the tarmac where planes are parked and was in the process of offloading luggage from a Frontier flight that had landed when her hair became caught in the belt loader's machinery. NOLA.com reports she was severely injured in the incident, which occurred around 10:20pm. Thompson was taken from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to a local hospital, where she died.

Her employer, GAT Airline Ground Support, had this to say in a statement, per WVUE: "We are heartbroken and are supporting her family and her friends as best as we are able. Please send your well wishes to everyone at our New Orleans station during this very difficult time." NOLA.com reports Thompson was a longtime basketball player who'd played in high school and at both Hesston College in Kansas and Tougaloo College in Mississippi and dreamed of a future in the WNBA. She received her sociology degree from Tougaloo. (More freak accident stories.)