Around 4:30 p.m. this afternoon, a Washington Dulles airport mobile lounge transporting passengers toward Concourse D struck a dock at the terminal at an angle.
Passengers were able to disembark via stairs. However, there are conflciting reports on injuries. Some reports say that at least eight to a hospital non-life threatening issues, while one outlet reports that 18 people were hospitalized.
A Dulles International Airport “people mover” (Mobile Lounge is the official name) struck the dock at Concourse D as it was pulling up with passengers on board. Injuries unclear at this moment. @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/8jMpVKW5jm
— Joseph Olmo (@ReporterJoseph) November 10, 2025
#BREAKING @Dulles_Airport @MWAAFireRescue on scene D Gate stuck by mobile lounge. Several injuries pic.twitter.com/FkBZPFweZv
— Charlie Bragale (@charlienbc) November 10, 2025
Big response at Dulles after a mobile lounge struck the dock "at an angle." Passengers were escorted off via stairs and evaluated for injuries. It's not having an impact on flight operations. #FOX5DC pic.twitter.com/KkhwJGWSqr
— Jim Lokay (@Lokay) November 10, 2025
One of the unique features of Washington Dulles airport is that, despite building an expensive train system, they still use “mobile lounges” to ferry passengers across the airport from their D concourse and to bring passengers from some international flights directly to customs and immigration. These people movers were built in the 1960s.
These are no longer being built, since virtually no one else uses them any longer, and the manufacturer no longer supports them. Refurbishments cost about $8 million apiece.
Each one is named for a U.S. state. Each lounge needed a clear way to be called and tracked by operations and by passengers. Rather than numbering them (which could create confusion with gate numbers, concourses, or flights), the airport chose U.S. state names. That gave each vehicle a distinctive, easily remembered identity: “Board the Maryland” or “The Wyoming is headed to Gate 23.” It also reflected the airport’s status as a new national gateway for Washington, D.C. — symbolically connecting the states to the nation’s capital.
The fleet consists of 19 Mobile Lounges and 30 Plane Mates, and all remain in use today. There are 49 lounges but 50 states. None are named for Hawaii. I believe that Hawaii’s admission to the United States was known when these were ordered, but too late in the procurement cycle.
Yikes. Kinda been a bad year for aviation-related incidents, no?
Why have these not been replaced by buses already?
Major bummer, hope everyone’s okay. Must have been pretty bad, they don’t go very fast but I’d estimate 75+% of people aren’t holding onto anything during transit.
On a lighter note, that’s a nice picture Gary took from IAD TSA PreCheck airside, hopefully on the way to the Capital 1 Lounge a few feet down 🙂
@Peter,
America doesn’t do infrastructure, until it really has to. Just look at how long it took to redevelop LaGuardia Airport, replace Acela train sets, or fix roads, highways, etc…It is an agonizingly slow process as there is little political will or appetite for it.
@lavanderialarry — Ah, the NexGen Acela… five out of 28 planned trains in service as of late August 2025, aiming for full rollout by 2027… but, realistically, more like 2029, unless the cholesterol finally catches up to him, #47 will purposely prevent any nice things for all those blue states and cities, out of spite, even if it hurts the overall economy. Careless people.