Woman dies naturally on board Spirit Airlines flight to O’Hare

A woman died of natural causes last week on board a Spirit Airlines flight to Chicago.

Santa Teresa-Robles Morales, 59, was on a Spirit Airlines flight from Tampa last Tuesday when she became unresponsive on the descent into Chicago, according to the airline and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

“When something like this happens, we have very clear procedures,” Spirit Airlines spokesman Paul Berry said.

A flight attendant asked if there were any medical personnel on board, and a doctor on the plane said the woman needed to get to a hospital as soon as possible, Berry said.

The captain asked for special clearance to land at O’Hare as the doctor began performing CPR on the woman, who was traveling with her adult son, Berry said.

The doctor told flight staff the CPR didn’t appear to be working, Berry said. When the plane landed, medical personnel came on board and tried resuscitating the woman.

Morales, who lived in the 5100 block of North Lovejoy Avenue, was pronounced dead at the airport at 1:24 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

An autopsy found she died of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity, and her death was ruled natural.