Australian woman dies after long-haul flight to US

6.00pm


CANBERRA - A young Australian woman died from a blood clot possibly caused by so-called "economy class syndrome" just hours after stepping off a long-haul flight to the United States, Australian authorities said today.

A foreign affairs spokeswoman said Rebecca Yates, 25, died of a heart attack on Saturday, believed caused by a blood clot, after flying from Brisbane on Australia's east coast to Los Angeles and then on to Las Vegas.

A spokeswoman from Air New Zealand confirmed Yates was a passenger on the Sydney to Los Angeles flight but declined to comment further.

She said Air New Zealand was named in several lawsuits filed jointly in various courts around the world against a list of air carriers by passengers who suffered blood clots after flights.

"These cases are currently on hold pending further information from overseas," she said.

She was believed to be meeting up with her fiancé.

"Australian consular officials in LA and Canberra are providing assistance to the family," the spokeswoman said.

Health officials in Las Vegas were reported as saying an autopsy revealed Yates had suffered a heart attack caused by deep vein thrombosis after a blood clot formed in an artery.

The sometimes fatal condition of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is believed to result from long hours of inactivity, particularly of the legs, and can occur on long-distance flights.

The death of a 28-year-old woman after a flight from Australia to Britain two years ago raised awareness of DVT and a number of incidents have since kept the issue in the headlines.

The World Health Organization in May this year launched a four-year probe into a possible link between potentially fatal blood clots and air travel.




- REUTERS

Further reading
Feature: Economy class syndrome

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