THE family of a 25-year-old Brazilian man, who was found with packages inside his body when he died on board an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, are flying into Cork to identify him.
The man had to be restrained by members of the crew on flight EI 485 from Lisbon on Sunday afternoon after he reportedly became agitated and bit another passenger.
As the incident took place mid-flight, the captain declared a medical emergency and diverted the plane to Co. Cork at 6pm.
A doctor and a nurse treated the man after he became unwell, collapsed and lost consciousness, and he was pronounced dead at Cork Airport at 6.40pm.
Coroner for Cork’s south and west regions, Frank O’Connell, told The Irish Post that the man’s sister, who lives in Europe, would be travelling to Ireland to identify his body.
His parents are both deceased.
Mr O’Connell confirmed that toxicology tests are to be carried out in due course. He expects that the full post-mortem of the body could take up to ten weeks.
A Garda investigation is also currently underway into the man’s death.
A Garda spokesman confirmed that preliminary results from the post-mortem had been provided to the investigating Gardaí.
“A number of packages had been recovered from the body of the deceased during the course of a post-mortem examination,” he said.
When contacted by The Irish Post, the State Pathologist’s Office could not provide further details of the post-mortem.
A woman, believed to be Portuguese and in her 40s, on the same flight was also arrested under the Drug Trafficking Act.
She was detained at Cork Airport at 11pm on Sunday, after Gardaí discovered a 1.8kg substance believed to be amphetamine in the woman’s bags. The substance was sent to the State laboratory for forensic analysis.
The woman was released without charge on Tuesday evening, after being held at Togher Garda Station for questioning.
All 168 passengers and six crew members on board the flight were questioned by Gardaí in Cork when the plane landed.
The man who was bitten during the flight was taken to Cork University Hospital, where he was treated for his injury.
On Monday night, gardaí released the Aer Lingus plane, which had been declared a crime scene and had been held for a forensic examination by Garda technical experts.
