Woman Dies on American Airlines Flight from Brazil to Texas
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Joe Raedle/Getty Images(HOUSTON) — A 25-year-old woman was pronounced dead shortly after her flight landed in Houston on Wednesday, diverted because she suffered a medical emergency.
The woman was on American Airlines flight 96 from Sao Paolo, Brazil to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport in Texas.
The airline told ABC News the flight was diverted to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston after the woman became ill. The airline would not say what happened to her.
However, the Houston Police Department said that eight hours into the flight, the woman went into medical distress. Members of the flight crew, aided by a physician who happened to be on board, began performing emergency medical procedures as the plane changed course to land in Houston. Shortly after landing, the woman was pronounced dead.
There were no apparent signs of trauma or any indication of foul play. Her identity and cause of death have not been released pending notification of family members and autopsy results.
The 220 passengers and 14 crew members on the Boeing 777 departed Houston at 9:05 a.m.
In September, a 64-year-old woman on a Korean Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea died on a flight bound for New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
In June, a man died on a Kenya Airways flight from Amsterdam to Tanzania. The man was reportedly sweating and having seizures before the flight but the plane took off anyway.
In that case, the cabin crew reportedly laid the body across three seats and partially covered it, but another passenger, Lena Pettersson, was forced to sit across the aisle from it for the rest of the flight.
“Of course, it was unpleasant, but I am not a person who makes a fuss,” Pettersson told the Swedish tabloid Expressen.
She was given a partial refund from the airline, about half the cost of her ticket.
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