A trainee commercial airline pilot died after she was bitten by a mosquito and developed an infection which spread to her brain, an inquest heard. Oriana Pepper, 21, of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, had passed her theory exams on the easyJet programme in Oxford with flying colours and had gone to Belgium for her instrument ratings.
While in Antwerp she was bitten by a mosquito on her forehead, by her right eye, and it appeared swollen and infected, Wednesday’s hearing in Ipswich was told. She attended a hospital’s accident and emergency department on July 7, 2021 and was prescribed antibiotics.
Miss Pepper was driven back to the hospital two days later by her boyfriend James Hall after she collapsed. She died in hospital three days later on July 12, 2021.
