57 year old woman killed after becoming stuck at Chicago airport baggage carousel in Terminal 5 after making her way in worker’s area baggage room where she inexplicably become trapped in machinery.
A 57 year old woman has died after becoming entangled in an airport baggage carousel at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
The Chicago Fire Dept was called to the scene around 7:45am on Thursday following a report of a woman ‘pinned in machinery,’ used to move luggage.
Responding firefighters said the woman was trapped in the conveyer belt system at Terminal 5 – which is an international terminal. Paramedics pronounced the 57-year-old woman dead at the scene.
57-year-old woman killed after becoming entangled in baggage carousel
Chicago Fire Dept spokesperson Larry Langford said, the victim was found ‘entangled in a conveyor belt system in a baggage room’ that wasn’t accessible to the public, AP reported.
The woman was not a worker at the airport, according to a spokesperson from the Department of Labor.
The victim’s identity to date has not been publicly divulged.
Police spokesperson Nathaniel Blackman told the AP that nobody saw the woman enter the room in real time and the footage was only reviewed after her body was found.
Surveillance video showed the woman entering the employees-only area just before 2:30am. It remained unclear how much time passed before the woman entering the facility and her becoming pinned and crushed occurring. It wasn’t until a further 5 hours after the woman entering the area that her body was discovered.
Authorities stressed surveillance video only showed the woman walking into the baggage room, and nothing after that. It continued to remain unclear how — what authorities described as an accident — having taken place.
The area has since been declared a crime scene and handed over to investigators with the Chicago Police Department, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Authorities said the part of the airport the woman entered is restricted to employees, and while it’s considered secure, it isn’t a high security area, WGN 9 reported.
This section of the international terminal is filled with conveyor belts that bring luggage to and from planes. Bags in this area also go through customs.
Police haven’t revealed if they were able to track the woman’s movements after she entered the restricted area.
It is thought the woman was not a passenger who had come to retrieve her luggage.
Investigators have yet to say how the woman came to be at the airport.
Authorities continue to investigate.
