SEATAC – If you typically circle Seattle-Tacoma International Airport while waiting for arriving passengers in the baggage claim area, your drive is about to get longer.

The airport is closing the short ramps Monday for construction of the light rail station that is scheduled to open in 2009. Construction around surrounding roadways is expected to continue over the next two years, said Bob Parker, airport spokesman

“Circling around will still be possible, but it will not be as convenient,” Parker said.

Drivers making the loop will be forced to stay on the northbound lanes of the airport expressway, and they’ll need to navigate surrounding streets to return, Parker said.

Tacoma: Toddler dies when he falls out of van

A 2-year-old boy who fell out of the back of a van as his family drove on Highway 7, south of Roy, later died of his injuries, the Pierce County Sheriff’s office said.

After the accident Saturday evening, the family panicked, said sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer. Since they didn’t know where the hospital was, they drove to a friend’s house first, then took the boy to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Olympia.

By then, however, the child had died, Troyer said. Detectives in Pierce County are investigating his death.

There were five other children in the back of the van, investigators said, but it was unclear if one of them opened the door, or if it had been improperly closed.

Pilot is killed when chopper drops into lake

A helicopter carrying two people crashed and sank in about 35 feet of water in Lake Tapps near Bonney Lake in eastern Pierce county Sunday afternoon, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said.

The pilot, who was in his 40s, was fatally injured in the 4:06 p.m. crash, said sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer. The medical examiner later declared him dead.

A 37-year-old woman aboard the helicopter was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, he said.

Richland: Diesel spill contained at yacht club

The state Department of Ecology was called to contain a small fuel spill at a yacht club Sunday after receiving reports about strong diesel odors coming from the marina.

Officials were trying to determine the source of the diesel spill at the Richland Yacht Club at the Columbia Point Marina, which Ecology spokeswoman Sandy Howard estimated at five to 10 gallons.

Associated Press