A 21-year-old trainee pilot from the UK has died after being bitten on the forehead by a mosquito, an inquest hearing has heard.
Oriana Pepper, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, developed an infection which spread to her brain.
Pepper was on her way to becoming a commercial airline pilot and had passed her theory exams on the EasyJet program in Oxford. She had traveled to Belgium for her instrument ratings.
In Antwerp, according to the investigation, Pepper was bitten on the forehead by a mosquito. She was hospitalized on July 7 last year when the infection spread.
Doctors prescribed antibiotics, which did not help.
Two days later, she collapsed in front of her friend James Hall, who had to take her back to the hospital.
Pepper died there on July 21 last year.
Suffolk Coroner Nigel Parsley said on Wednesday that the trainee pilot died “as a result of a serious infection caused by an insect bite on the forehead”.
Mr Parsley said: “An infection got into Oriana’s skin after being bitten by an insect. It then traveled into the carotid artery in the neck and caused a septic embolism in her brain.’
“I’ve never seen a case like this before,” said the coroner.
“It’s just one of those things that is such an unfortunate tragedy for a young lady who obviously had a wonderful career and life ahead of her.”
Pepper’s parents Tristan and Louisa Pepper attended the inquest and later issued a statement saying their daughter “loved nothing more than flying with her father and her brother Oliver, also a trainee commercial pilot”.
He said his daughter described flying as “having an office in the sky in the clouds.”
“She had met someone she loved, she was training to be a commercial pilot and living her dreams.”
The trainee pilot’s mother said after the inquest that in Pepper’s memory the family had “set up a small scholarship to encourage other female pilots to enter the profession, working with the British Women Pilots Association”.
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