A woman travelling on an Angolan passport has been arrested on drug trafficking charges following the death of a passenger on a flight from Lisbon to Dublin.
The aeroplane was diverted to Cork airport after the man bit a passenger and had to be restrained by airline crew. He then lost consciousness and died on the flight, the suspicion being that his ingested drugs had been released into his system.
On landing at Cork, the woman was arrested in connection with the death of the 24-year-old man and for carying amphetamines. She is said to be around 40 years old.
A post mortem on the man is being carried out at Cork University Hospital and confirmation that he was Brazilian now has been issued.
Alerted to the rumpus on board, the pilot of the Aer Lingus flight declared an emergency and diverted to Cork while the restrained man was treated by a doctor and nurse on the plane, but to no avail.
The flight landed at 18:00hrs on Sunday evening and each of the 168 passengers and six crew were questioned by police and their baggage searched.
The woman’s luggage was examined and 1.8Kg of amphetamines were found. She was arrested and charged.
After three hours of milling around, the passengers were allowed to continue their journeys with the bite victim receiving hospital treatment and a selection of jabs.
