Chicago authorities are scratching their heads after a woman died from getting tangled up in a baggage carousel’s conveyor belt at the O’Hare International Airport, The Guardian reports.
The strange situation came to light on Thursday when fire officials were called to the airport that morning on a report of someone being stuck in some machinery that controls the baggage carousel, according to the newspaper. The woman, 57 years old and not yet publicly identified, was found dead in a baggage area not open to the public.
Surveillance footage later revealed that the woman, who was not an airport employee, had somehow gotten into the space in the early morning, though video doesn’t show the moment when she got into the baggage carousel machinery.
Deadly Trap
Though this incident is quite out of the ordinary, other people have died or been seriously injured from airport baggage carousels.
In February, a baggage handler in London’s Heathrow airport suffered brain damage after her scarf got caught in a conveyor belt while she was working. The belt dragged her for some distance, leaving her seriously hurt.
In 2013, a five-month-old baby was killed at a Spanish airport after his mother placed his baby carrier on one of the devices, activating the conveyor belt and sending the child into machine rollers that crushed him.
Basically, the take away from all these stories is that even though baggage carousels look innocuous, they are not to be messed with at all.
