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Woman, 58, who died on Ryanair flight in Majorca named as Scottish holidaymaker
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Woman, 58, who died on Ryanair flight in Majorca named as Scottish holidaymaker

A WOMAN who passed away on a Ryanair jet in Majorca on Wednesday has been named as Scottish tourist Janice McNeill.

The 58-year-old became ill inside the cabin of an Edinburgh-bound flight just minutes before take-off from Palma de Mallorca Airport at around 12.30pm.

Paramedics were called on board but she was pronounced dead shortly later from a suspected heart attack, according to local media.

Ms McNeill was on holiday on the Spanish island ahead of her 59th birthday next Monday.

In a statement, a Ryanair spokesperson said: "This flight from Palma to Edinburgh was delayed ahead of take-off after a customer became ill prior to departure.

"Paramedics boarded the aircraft after medical assistance was requested but the customer sadly passed away.

"Ryanair extends its deepest sympathies to the bereaved and is providing any assistance required."

Janice McNeill, 58, died after boarding a Ryanair flight in Majorca on Wednesday (Image: Stock)

The UK Foreign Office said its staff were "supporting the family of a British woman following her death in Spain".

Ms McNeill's body was taken to a local hospital and an autopsy is due to be carried out to clarify her cause of death, reports Diario de Mallorca.

However, it is understood that all signs point to the Scottish holidaymaker having suffered a cardiac arrest and died from natural causes.

The Spanish Civil Guard confirmed: "About 12.30pm the alarm was raised about the death of a woman on a plane bound for Edinburgh that was on the tarmac in an airport apron.

"A doctor certified her death from cardiac arrest.

"The dead woman is a British woman who would have been 59 next Monday."

It comes just two months after British grandmother-of-two Ann Rudkin died after falling ill on an EasyJet flight from Gatwick to Malaga in March.

And in 2015, mother-of-two Davina Taverner collapsed three hours into a Ryanair flight to Lanzarote after suffering heart problems in the toilets.