Horrible: American Airlines Flight Attendant Found Dead At Airport Marriott

American Airlines informed employees on Tuesday about the death of a 25 year veteran Los Angeles-based flight attendant who had been working a trip and laying over in Philadelphia.

Since news accounts aren’t mentioning her name, I won’t either.

The sixty six year old woman didn’t report for work. She was found dead in her room, with a sock in her mouth, at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott two days after she was supposed to check out.

  • There was reportedly “”no signs of forced entry, no signs of a struggle, and no weapons were recovered…several sealed bottles of prescription drugs were found in the room.”

  • Homicide is investigating what has been deemed a suspicious death.

This is chilling. The airline’s internal message to crew includes the woman’s photo. I don’t immediately recognize her, and don’t remember flying with her, though I certainly could have.

While some foreign layover cities are more inherently dangerous, you don’t think of working as a flight attendant on a domestic trip as being among the riskier jobs.

The mystery of it – lack of answers – makes things doubly hard for people a victim was close to. A good friend was killed shortly after I graduated college. I remember when the police came over to interview a group of us right after it happened. Fifteen years later everyone they knew that knew her was asked for DNA samples. Arrests were made on multiple occasions but the suspects were exonerated. It was another decade because the likely killer was found.

I hope this crewmember’s loved ones can find answers and peace soon.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. This is a tragic story . Knowing how crews go, something reads strange in the story . The victim wasn’t found for 2 days after they were supposed to check out / report to work ?? When a crew member doesn’t show for work , the hotel room is the first place that is checked . Very odd

  2. Airlines frequently halt service to foreign cities to avoid exposing their crews to danger (e.g., Caracas, Tripoli, Joberg, Kiev, Ankara, ) which are usually less dangerous than Philadelphia. Many businesses are moving out of Philadelphia due to violence, and setting up a hub and forcing employees to stay in a place like that is simply irresponsible.

  3. Spot on, Mak ! Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland, Washington DC, NYC, Newark are all dangerous cities with high levels of homicide. Guess the common thread yet ?

  4. Crewmember safety is an important part of selecting hotels and transportation. Both the company and the individual had to be aware and take precautions to ensure their safety. In reading this report, why was she not found for two days? Wouldn’t AA or the hotel have had her room checked when she didn’t show up for her trip?

  5. @TexasTJ – common thread is people suck. Ever been to South Oak Cliff? This story and the cities have nothing to do with politics

  6. TexasTJ says:
    September 27, 2023 at 6:46 am
    Spot on, Mak ! Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland, Washington DC, NYC, Newark are all dangerous cities with high levels of homicide. Guess the common thread yet ?

    REPUBLICANS!

  7. Although I don’t consider Philadelphia particularly safe, having had a college friend murdered there over a fall weekend more than 40 years ago, I have no reason to believe that the hotel used by flight attendants is a safety risk. I hope that the police have answers soon.

  8. TexasTJ says:
    September 27, 2023 at 6:46 am
    Spot on, Mak ! Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland, Washington DC, NYC, Newark are all dangerous cities with high levels of homicide. Guess the common thread yet ?

    DEMOCRATS!

  9. Before we torch Philadelphia and every other major American city, the few facts out there don’t impute random urban violence. This is a hotel physically connected to the airport, away from Center City. There was no evidence of forced entry which imputes that she either knew the perp, welcomed the perp into her room, or took her own life (voluntarily or otherwise). The “sock in the mouth” thing doesn’t immediate point to anything definitive IMO.

  10. @BC “The “sock in the mouth” thing doesn’t immediate point to anything definitive IMO.”

    So she stuffed her own sock in her own mouth moments before dying of natural causes? I’m afraid this is not a very rigorous analysis.

    There is every reason to believe that she was murdered, and even if she was tricked into opening the door that makes it no less a murder – which strikes about 20 out of every 100K people in Philadelphia every year (and that’s just the ones that are reported) which is 2x as many as compared to about 10 out of every 100K in a city like São Paulo, Brazil which many Americans would be afraid to travel due to crime).

  11. The comments here just show the Republicans are not interested in real facts. More murders are committed in republican controlled states then in democratically controlled states. In fact, Savannah GA has eight times the murder rate of New York City. And New York is one of the safest large cities in the world.

  12. @Mak – I’m certainly not trying to be Sherlock Holmes here, but yes, it’s in the realm of possibility that she put a sock in her mouth as part of a suicide plan. She would not be the first, particularly if convulsion was a side effect of an intentional overdose. Again, I know nothing here, but it’s not impossible even if it doesn’t jibe with your narrative.

  13. @WileyDog “The comments here just show the Republicans are not interested in real facts. More murders are committed in republican controlled states then in democratically controlled states.”

    The comments here show that Americans are more interested in politics and choosing between inept politicians of their preferred tribe than recognizing the destruction of their own society at the hands of an incompetent, corrupt, and self-serving government. If anybody thinks that either Democrats or Republicans have an answer to the disintegration of American cities and American society or culture more generally, they are missing the forest for the trees.

  14. The PHL Marriott is not a high crime area, its on airport property. Very disturbing to see that happen in that location.

  15. Not sure why anyone with a shred of human decency thinks that this is a story which should be politicized. Whether it was a suicide or a homicide, it is just tragic for anyone who knew this 66 year old soul, and a stark reminder for the rest of us to hold our friends and loved ones close, because none of us truly know what tomorrow will bring.

    I am not an AA flyer and have been on an AA flight only once in the past 10 years (tragically because I had to get to Dallas as quickly as possible after my own godson was found dead in suburban Dallas just shy of his 21st birthday), so I would not know this woman from flying (although if she lived here in LA, I may well have run into her for some other reason). But, as a human being, I’m nonetheless saddened by her passing. I hope that her loved ones find peace.

    And as we say in my tradition, may her memory be for a blessing

  16. @TexasTJ I was curious so I googled it,,,,,
    Violent Crimes per 1000
    Philadelphia 8.1
    SFO. 5.39
    NYC 5.21
    Newark 4.74
    ……On the other hand…
    Houston is a whopping 12.40 and Dallas slightly worse then PHL at 8.64….
    …..For the record I’m a believer that the too soft on crime by some far left folks doesn’t work, however you should be aware that you have added to the perception (well earned I might add!) that the Republican Party is now the party that best misrepresents reality in our Country.

  17. A quote from the KFF website:

    “In 2020 and 2021, firearms were involved in the deaths of more children ages 1-17 than any other type of injury or illness, surpassing deaths due to motor vehicles, which had long been the number one factor in child deaths. In 2021, there were 2,571 child deaths due to firearms—a rate of 3.7 deaths per 100,000 children, which is an increase of 68% in the number of deaths since 2000 and 107% since a recent low of 2013.”

    And I could get into the number of overall preventable deaths if we had a decent national health system like every other developed country in the world. Instead Americans spend more and get less return than any of them.

    So was this poor woman murdered? A suicide? Just died in her sleep? I have no idea and neither does anyone else here. But when people start playing the racism or political cards by innuendo consider the system that she is in regardless of the U.S. city: Easy access to guns but low mental health access, and lousy a lousy care system unless you can afford better. We are all there and then we wonder why people die.

  18. Gary. This is tragic story. If you or anyone has any more information on the cause of death please share it with us. God bless her and her loved ones.

  19. Umm, I love how commentors here confuse statistics. Yes, Philadelphia has a high murder rate- but they are all concentrated in areas no where NEAR the airport, and as others have pointed out, the Marriott is directly connected to the airport via Terminal B, there’s always people there, and if not, cameras are everywhere! It’s probably one of the safest hotels in the country, let alone Philadelphia, and it’s because of the ISOLATION from where the real bad guys are, not to mention the surveillance.

    Gary- I actually think some of your commentors are AI bots designed to perpetuate culture wars, sigh.

    -Jon

    ps – I own several commercial (and one personal) websites where I have Contact us pages, and I am inundated by bots from the US and lately, Russia, so it’s happening everywhere.

  20. When the crew alerted the company they were short a FA and could not board, AA just called a reserve to protect the departure. This is an airport hotel that is walked to – meaning sometimes crews will meet at the gate since some want to get there early to grab food. PHL is a crew base with managers. Not ONE manager walked over to the hotel to do a wellness check. Shameful that an on time departure is more important than a human. But, Isom and company only get bonuses for on time departures.

  21. @Mak while i’m totally aware of the Philadelphia situation, and the destruction of America by socialists (exactly like in Venezuela). You are totally dislocated from reality to compare that to Caracas. You have no idea! Trust me, I was born and lived (survived is more accurate) 40 year in Venezuela.

    Copa (which not long ago was basically the only foreign carrier still operating in VE) changed their schedules for immediate turn around and even deadheads additional crew if the original times out, just to avoid the overnight there.

  22. Very sad that this death has to be politicized by our liberal viewers. I thought this type of behavior was beneath their dignity but I guess I was wrong

  23. Well I hope they had good working cameras so they can go over the surveillance videos and find out more facts of who did it.

  24. @ Mak. Yep R or D, same song different verse. Too many people forget that the primary objective of every politician is to get elected and stay elected.
    Unfortunately those that appear to have a “liberal” slant prefer to argue their point emotionally rather than logically.

    Condolences to the family of the AA flight attendant. Having “lived” in hotels one of my prayers was not to die in one on a layover.

  25. To all the Liberals who love to warp the facts, we can play this game anyway that you like. The Large Cities that I had cited are over the charts on crime, but that’s not adjusted for population. If we go with those stats, the results are the same. According to published FBI Crime Data for 2023 to date, the following list emerges (in order): Bessemer AL, Monroe LA, Saginaw, MI, Memphis TN, Detroit MI, Birmingham AL, Pine Bluff AR, Little Rock, AR, Alexandria LA, Cleveland OH. No surprise, 10 of the 10 Mayors are Democrat.

  26. Guests who stay at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott connected via skywalk to Terminal B might get the same room where the American Airlines flight attendant died.

    According to Caitlin Morton’s Condé Nast Traveler article “44 Haunted Hotels Around the World You Can Stay At—If You Dare,” you might want to sleep with one eye open.

    Most passengers are unaware that the Philadelphia Airport Marriott and other Marriott Hotels are not required to inform guests of a recent death in their assigned room. The Philadelphia Airport Marriott does not discount the number of Marriott (Bonvoy) points for your stay, even if you are given the same guest room where the flight attendant died. Some Marriott guests think this hotel room could haunted forever. However, if you want to stay at PHL Airport Marriott this weekend, the lowest room rate is 40,000 Bonvoy points.

  27. Perhaps AA has more info than released. However, I’m a retired Flight Attendant and there are 2 things off here. One, you have a scheduled bus pickup at the hotel to the airport. When she didn’t show up, one of the crew should have notified the front desk to ring her room. 2, when she didn’t show up at check in at the gate, a crew should have called the hotel or at least AA scheduling to report they were 1 F/A short for working the flight. IF all of this occurred, it is a horrific lack of judgement on the part of all the crew with their lack of concern for there fellow worker.

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