Dead woman found entangled in baggage machinery at Chicago airport

CHICAGO (AP) — Firefighters found a dead woman entangled in machinery Thursday in a non-public baggage-processing area at O’Hare International Airport.

Larry Langford, a spokesperson for the Chicago Fire Department, said firefighters were called to the airport around 7:45 a.m. for a report of a person pinned in machinery used to move baggage. He said they discovered the woman entangled in a conveyer belt system in a baggage room.

The room wasn’t publicly accessible, Langford said. He said paramedics estimated that she was about 40 years old.

Scott Allen, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor, said an official with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration visited the scene and learned the woman was not an airport employee. It is not clear how she found her way into the baggage room.

Firefighters turned the scene over to police investigators, and Langford had no more details. The Chicago Police Department’s communications office said in an email to The Associated Press that the woman was found unresponsive and pronounced dead on the scene. Detectives have opened an investigation, the office said.

The office said the woman was discovered at 2:27 a.m. Langford said he did not know why firefighters weren’t called to the airport for more than five hours. The police communications team did not immediately respond to a follow-up email from the AP inquiring about the delay in contacting the fire department. Police spokesperson Michelle Tannehill also didn’t immediately respond to email, text and voicemail messages inquiring about the delay.