A flight attendant was found dead in her room at an airport hotel earlier this week while on a layover, in what’s being labeled a suspicious death.
At 10:45PM on Monday, September 25, 2023, an American Airlines flight attendant’s body was discovered in a guest room at the Marriott Philadelphia Airport. The 66-year-old flight attendant was intended to check out two days prior, but failed to do so. For whatever reason, hotel housekeeping only entered the room two days later.
This death is being investigated by homicide detectives, given the suspicious circumstances. There were no signs of a forced entry, no signs of a struggle, and no weapons were recovered. However, the woman was found with a sock in her mouth. Furthermore, several sealed bottles of prescription drugs were found in the hotel room, though it’s not clear how they factored into this, and if the prescriptions were for her, or someone else.
In an internal memo, American Airlines stated that the flight attendant “passed away suddenly,” and further released the following statement:
“The well-being of our team members is our top priority, and we will ensure that all those affected by this tragic loss have the support they need.”
My thoughts are with this woman’s family, as this is no doubt a very tough time. My gosh, how absolutely tragic, regardless of what the cause of death was. It’ll be interesting to see what an investigation reveals into the cause of the death, since there seem to be some conflicting clues.
Bottom line
A flight attendant was found dead at an airport hotel on Monday night. She was intended to check out on Saturday, but housekeeping only entered her room two days later, only to find that she had passed away. The circumstances surrounding this death are suspicious, and detectives are now investigating…
So many assumptions and so much judgement in these comments. The story as written does not provide nearly enough information to support most of these. Wait for the facts!
I believe that Marriott is connected to the airport via a walkway, similar to the O'Hare Airport Hilton. In that case, many crews walk to the airport at their leisure, as some may decide to go early and get a bite to eat, and then meet at the departure gate.
Other times, if the crew agrees to meet at the lobby at a certain time to walk together, yet at times, one of them...
I believe that Marriott is connected to the airport via a walkway, similar to the O'Hare Airport Hilton. In that case, many crews walk to the airport at their leisure, as some may decide to go early and get a bite to eat, and then meet at the departure gate.
Other times, if the crew agrees to meet at the lobby at a certain time to walk together, yet at times, one of them may say " if I'm not here, don't wait for me as I've decided to leave earlier". This happens often.
Regardless, if she didn't show up at her departure gate, phone calls should have been made.
Also, the hotel knows when a flight crew checked out... yet they waited 2 days to clean a room?? Really?? SMH.
C
She was in the middle of a trip not a commuter. She overnighted there with her crew.
The crew did not want to leave - they were forced by management. The Flight Attendant was given a “ missed assignment” or missed trip. No concern or effort to find her. American Airlines should be very ashamed by their actions and lack of reactions,
If she was scheduled to go back out on a trip, the purser for her crew should have investigated when she didn’t show up to meet in the lobby. It probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome, but at least she would have been found much sooner.
Welcome to the new world of hotels. They won't ever clean your room unless you ask them to. How about online check-in? Another cost saver. The hotel industry is taking its cues from the airline industry.
I seriously wonder sometimes not only IF my room was even cleaned, but WHEN it was cleaned and how long after the last guest was in there did they take to clean. Bacteria and stuff grows fast. So gross. These hotels are going to have to give in at some point.....
Agree on the cleaning front, but I not sure completely about online check-in. Last thing I want to do when I get into a hotel at 10/11pm is wait for an agent while wasting a bunch of time in doing trivial tasks when I'm tired... it has to be done, obviously, but if there's anything I can do to expedite the check-in process upfront I'd do it
Poor lady. Why are they not using homesafe.net lone worker, we had it everywhere we went. She could have been found in at most a couple of hours, instead of 2 days - it may be the difference between life and death.
This isn't the first time this has happened at Marriot. Remember the TK's cabin crew at the Long Island Marriott. A flying chef and a flight attendant were found dead in their hotel room two months apart.
AA kney that this flight attendant missed the flight she was supposed to work, they gave her a MISSED TRIP, that's a discipline actiob, bit AA never bothered to call the hotel or try to f I ND out what was going on, why she never showed up at the gate. She was found TWO DAYS later by a hotel housekeeping employee. It is awful how little AA cares so little about it's employees. No wonder why flight attendants are so demoralized.
How do You know all of this? Or are You just assuming?
May she rest in peace. Very suspicious as to why a sock is in her mouth. I hope they figure out the killer.
I am shocked and saddened to hear of my fellow flight Attendant’s passing. It is very common to see flight attendants still working well into their Golden years. Praying for her family.
15 years as a FA. If someone wasn’t in lobby for crew departure someone would always call them and check on them. If they didn’t answer hotel and crew scheduling notified to follow up. Maybe she wasn’t on a crew layover, just commuting ? So sad.
@ CJ - Back in my US Airways days, a friend who worked for the airline told me that 85% of the PHL based crews did not live in Philadelphia, which I thought at the time was a shockingly high number. Sounds highly likely that your theory is correct. In any event, having stayed in that hotel many times, there was plenty of video surveillance so they should be able to narrow down the possibilities. Terrible tragedy for her loved ones.
View From The Wing reported that she was an L.A.-based FA. So a good chance she was on a layover, though perhaps she was starting a trip based at PHL. I know a formerly PHL-based LA who moved to the L.A. base, but still bids on PHL TATL flights now that Asian flying from LA is reduced.
"FA who moved to the L.A. base...."
This story sounds similar to a true story on an episode of Forensic Files on HLN. A flight attendant for Northwest airlines was found murdered in her hotel room. The killer was hiding in the hallway next to the ice machine, once the flight attendant opened the door to her room he pushed her in, raped and killed her. It took more than a day to find her body because she was a last minute replacement for a no show and her name wasn't on the flight roster.
Some of you seem to be putting the shame on American for questioning why the airline didn’t look further into the situation when she didn’t show up to work. This is making the assumption that she had to work a trip the next day.l and failed to report. It’s also very likely that she was a commuter, finished a trip too late to get on a flight home, and got a room at the hotel...
Some of you seem to be putting the shame on American for questioning why the airline didn’t look further into the situation when she didn’t show up to work. This is making the assumption that she had to work a trip the next day.l and failed to report. It’s also very likely that she was a commuter, finished a trip too late to get on a flight home, and got a room at the hotel intending to fly home for her days off the next morning. She unfortunately never made it home. It’s very, very possible that AA never even knew she was “missing”.
You didn’t read the article it clearly stated her crew left without her they did not knock on her door or call her ..lack of camaraderie at AA is so
Shocking
She was 66 yrs old and still working!! By now, most would be retired. Probably needed the cash flow to plug holes in her retirement fund.
Big question as to why it took the hotel so long to check on the room two days after checkout.
Who knows any of what Your assuming. Maybe she didn't fund her "retirement", or had 4 mortgages to fund her gambling and shopping habits, or maybe she was a Saint and just loved flying and interacting with customers and still wanted to work? Who knows?!? But I know that You definitely don't know anything about her personal situation. That's a fact.
why didn't her job follow up to see where she was??? And that hotel is connected to Airport and should have plenty cameras
Is it just me or is it creepy to show a stock photo of a Philadelphia Marriott hotel room. Is that really necessary to get the gist of the story??
Weird concern trolling.
Kinda like what you're doing??
No, it's not "creepy." It's not like it is a murder-scene photo. It's a plain old hotel room.
She may have been a commuter. When she failed to show for work she was marked as a no show and a reserve FA was placed in her slot. At that moment there would be no way for AA to know the poor soul had passed on. Unlike someone overnighting with crew that would have checked on her not showing. Only once the room was checked was her fate discovered.
@Chris my guess is that she was a commuter and was staying in that hotel on her own dime prior to or post trip. American doesn't usually select airport hotels for layovers and I can't imagine with such a large base that they would have flight attendants laying over in PHL.
@Sam, utter nonsense. America has and continues to use airport hotels for short layovers. You will be shocked to learn that its is frequently done at the “large bases.”
not true. my daughter is attendant and stayed at this same hotel. She complains of safety issues all the time. once they get in there they are on their on and have to rely on hotel security. and yessss this is a major hotel they use for the attendants its 5 mins from security check in
A flight attendant on a layover failed to report for duty and the airline/rest of the crew didn't bother to check her room, even two days after she was meant to check out?
Happens regularly. That's why each base has a stand-by pool. An FA going AWOL has happened since the dawn of travel. If the crew is in the van ready to depart to terminal then they are on a tight schedule to avoid flight delays. They don't always have the time to hunt down every crew member. They call crew scheduling to get a replacement, pronto. Of course, it's the hotel who should have checked the room since the FA was supposed to check out.
I'm guessing with the shortage of workers at the moment the hotel wasn't able to keep up with regular housekeeping and just zeroed out the room until housekeeping could tend to it. I hope they can get to the bottom of things soon and I hope they have good surveillance in the hallways to see who was in and out of the room.