Tourist dies in Cancun airport

A tourist hit her head and died after falling down the plane steps as she arrived for a holiday in Mexico.

A tourist hit her head and died after falling down the plane steps as she arrived for a holiday in Mexico.

Rita Mellon, 61, had landed in Cancun with husband Keith. She lost her footing and fell “like a boxer”, a witness said.

Keith shaded Rita from the sun for 20 minutes waiting for paramedics as she lay unconscious and bleeding from her head and nose. An ambulance arrived 10 minutes later.

Stewards did not use bottled oxygen as they thought the plane was being refuelled and it was against safety rules. Keith, of Sheffield, called the treatment to his wife of 39 years “pathetic”.

Holiday firm Thomson has changed procedures after admitting there was a grey area of responsibility on stairs between cabin crew and ground staff.

The coroner told a Sheffield inquest that it was “difficult to judge whether different medical attention would have made a difference”. Rita died on July 11 last year of a blood clot after becoming immobile with a fractured skull.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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