Woman found dead in baggage area at Chicago's O'Hare Airport
CHICAGO (CBS) — Questions swirled about a woman found dead at O'Hare International Airport Thursday morning after getting trapped in some machinery.
The woman was found trapped in a conveyor belt in Terminal 5—the international terminal—and died at the scene, according to the Chicago Fire Department. She was identified as a 57-year-old woman from North Carolina, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. Her death was ruled a suicide.
Sources said the woman was in an area at Terminal 5 that the public cannot access—but her presence there would not be considered a security breach, because it did not take place in a high-security area.
She was found trapped in the conveyor belt, on a piece of equipment that is used to move baggage. How she got there still wasn't known as of Thursday.
Fire Department personnel at O'Hare found her unresponsive. They say they were called at 7:45 a.m.
Sources said when airport video was reviewed, the woman was seen walking in the area as early as 2:27 a.m. The exact time when she got into the machinery was still not known late Thursday.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
CBS News Chicago has checked with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, which said it is not investigating because the woman was not an airport employee.
