The body of a 57-year-old woman was found in a baggage handling machine at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Thursday, authorities said.
Chicago firefighters found the woman after being called to the airport around 7:45 a.m. because a person was trapped in a plane carrying luggage. The woman’s body was caught in a conveyor belt system in a baggage compartment.
The victim’s name was not immediately released, but Chicago police said she was 57 years old. According to a U.S. Department of Labor spokesman, the woman was not an airport employee but a citizen.
On Friday, a medical examiner identified the dead woman as Virginia Christine Vinton of North Carolina, NBC Chicago reported. The incident occurred in Terminal 5, which is served by Delta Airlines as well as a number of international airlines.
The circumstances of Vinton’s death remain unclear one day after her body was discovered. The luggage room was not accessible to the public and it is unclear how she was able to get into the restricted area.
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The area was declared a crime scene and turned over to Chicago police. In an email to The Associated Press, Chicago police said the woman was found unconscious and pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives have launched an investigation.
Police initially said Vinton was found at 2:27 a.m., which caused confusion because firefighters did not arrive at O’Hare Airport until after 7:45 a.m.
Chicago police issued a second statement correcting the error and clarifying that airport surveillance footage showed the woman entering the baggage hold at 2:27 a.m. She was actually spotted at 7:30 a.m., prompting a 911 call.
The footage only shows her walking and not what happened to her. The surveillance cameras were not monitored in real time, Chicago police added. Investigators only retrieved the footage after the woman was found dead.
Police have not said how the woman arrived at O’Hare Airport. It is unclear if she had a plane ticket from Chicago or had landed at O’Hare from somewhere else.
In 2019, a toddler climbed onto a baggage conveyor belt at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The conveyor belt ran behind a ticket counter, up a slide and through an X-ray machine, the Washington Post reports. The toddler injured his hand in the process.
— With files from The Associated Press
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
