Woman fatally crushed on O'Hare Airport conveyor belt identified

A 57-year-old woman who died after an accident with a conveyor belt Thursday has been identified, official said Friday.

Virginia Christine Vinton, of Waxhaw, North Carolina, died in the incident, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Vinton was last seen on camera at 2:27 a.m. entering a restricted area at the International Terminal, Chicago police said earlier.

Larry Langford, a spokesperson for the Chicago Fire Department, said firefighters were called to the airport around 7:45 a.m. for a report of a person pinned in machinery used to move baggage. He said they discovered the woman entangled in a conveyor belt system in a baggage room.

“She was pinned in machinery,” said Larry Merritt, another spokesperson for the fire department, earlier. Vinton was dead on the scene.

Vinton was not an airport employee, officials said.

The baggage room wasn’t publicly accessible, Langford said, and it’s not clear how she found her way into it.

A source familiar with the situation says the woman apparently tried to access the employee side of Terminal 5 at multiple locations.

“She was trying to gain access at multiple points,” said the source. “They are not sure what her motive was. She was trying to get to the secure side of the airport.

She eventually was able to climb to that side through a door that opens to let bags roll out onto the baggage claim and then closes. The baggage conveyor system on the secure side is “way more dangerous because there are a lot of moving parts,” the source said, and is multiple levels.

The source said whether any workers noticed her is unclear since the number of people in the area would correlate with the number of flights coming through. However, most would be very focused on “doing their jobs” and not necessarily checking to see if everyone in the area had the correct badge.

An autopsy is scheduled for Friday.

Mary Norkol contributed

This is a developing story. Check back for details.