Jermani Thompson, 26, was unloading baggage from a Frontier Airlines plane when the accident occurred on Tuesday night.

A baggage handler has died after her hair got caught in a conveyor belt at an airport in New Orleans.

Jermani Thompson, 26 was unloading baggage from a Frontier Airlines plane at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport when the accident happened at about 10pm local time on Tuesday.

Her hair had got entangled in the machinery of a belt loader - a vehicle with a conveyor belt for getting baggage on and off aircraft.

Ms Thompson, who was an employee of GAT Airline Ground Support, was rushed to hospital where she died, NBC News reported.

Her mother Angela Dorsey has said her daughter loved basketball and was a graduate of Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi.

She told the New Orleans news website NOLA: "She was my baby girl. Everybody loved her.

"I'm just lost for words. I can't even think."

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Mike Hough, chief executive of GAT Airline Ground Support, said: "We are heartbroken and are supporting her family and her friends as best as we are able."

Kevin Dolliole, the airport's director of aviation, said: "Jermani was a part of our airport family, and we will continue to support one another in any way we can during this trying time."

Frontier Airlines also expressed its condolences and said its thoughts were with Ms Thompson's friends and family.